Fool of the family

by W. J. McCormack

"McCormack details the complex religious and social environment in which Synge slowly refined his talents as a writer. This is a story of suburban disinheritance, nondescript education, and sexual immaturity leading to eventual self-discovery, through the landscape of County Wicklow and the West of Ireland. Synge's reading in Gaelic literature is important, as is his European sense of modern alienation. The Abbey Theatre of Yeats and Lady Gregory provided a platform for his dramatic debut, but James Joyce emerged as his closer soulmate. In Europe a cultural revolution was unfolding with Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann and Max Weber publishing their seminal works, and the Dreyfus Affair scandalising Paris. McCormack's biography places Synge in this context and illuminates his contribution to the spirit of the age"--Jacket, p. [2].