James Stephens

The Crock of Gold James Stephens

Pass a pleasant afternoon with this delightful collection of short stories. Simple but not simplistic, these diverting tales are rendered in exquisitely rich and often playful language that will have you lingering over sentences and highlighting your favorite passages so you can revisit them again and again. The Crock of Gold is the perfect blend of literary virtuosity and lighthearted fun. A truly unique novel, a mixture of philosophy, Irish folklore and the neverending battle of the sexes, written with charm, humour and good grace. James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet and produced many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales, which are marked by a rare combination of humour and lyricism; Deirdre, and Irish Fairy Tales are often especially praised. He also wrote several original novels, The Crock of Gold, Etched in Moonlight, and Demi-Gods, which are based loosely on Irish fairy tales. The Crock of Gold in particular has achieved enduring popularity and has often been reprinted. Stephens's influential book on the 1916 Easter Rising, Insurrection in Dublin, describes the effect of the deaths by execution of his friend Thomas MacDonagh and others as being "like watching blood oozing from under a door".