Going to Maynooth: Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, the Works of William Carleton, Volume Three

The third volume in Carleton's masterful collection follows young Denis O'Shaughnessy, a sharp-witted farm boy whose family has pinned all their hopes on him: the priesthood at Maynooth. But Denis is more interested in showing off his learning through grand debates with his proud father, old Denis, and stealing glances at the neighbor girl, Susan Connor, than in embracing his sacred calling. Carleton captures something achingly real about the gap between what families hope for their children and what those children actually want. The humor is gentle but sharp, the romance is tender and uncertain, and the portrait of rural Irish life in the early 1800s is rendered with an insider's affection and an artist's precision. This is a story about the comedy and tragedy of expectations, about the way love and pressure wear the same face. It endures because Carleton understood something essential about the Irish peasantry: their dignity, their wit, their struggles, and the quiet tragedies that shaped generations.