Lady Gregory: An Irish Life Kindle Edition

I barely knew her name when I started the book, I wept a little tear for her at the end. A well researched and engaging read.

A very complete picture of Lady Gregory and the times she lived in. A warm portrayal of a hugely interesting and influential Irish woman. Also a great insight into the workings of her creative mind and the people who were formative to her writing career.

And Judith Hill is the right biographer for Lady Gregory. She takes us between our world and its views and Lady G's, so that we have appreciation and perspective on this most intriguing of Irish women! Background research across continents melds seamlessly into the story.

Great detail, clearly written and obviously the result of much meticulous detailed archival research.

used these books for a thesis-any on Augusta Gregory and the Irish.Found it usefulYadah, Yadah, Yadah to fulfill the stupid word count restrictions

Having been attached to Yeats' poetry for nearly fifty years, I knew Lady Gregory and her house at Coole Park was very important to him. But until I read this beautifully written book I did not know how much.This book was first shown me by my landlady at a bed and breakfast in Galway, herself a frequent visitor to Coole Park, where it is possible to walk around the woods, although the house no longer exists. My landlady was convinced that Augusta Gregory and Yeats had an affair, although this is not the view of Judith Hill. However, by Hill's account the devotion shown over several decades to Yeats by Gregory was such that I can think of no parallel in any relationship between a man and woman I've ever heard of where there was no romantic involvement.Yeats' importance for Gregory was not only as a man, but as a poet, playwright, comrade, and partner over many years in running the Abbey theatre, so both had an enormous amount invested in the partnership.At times they disagreed and even fought, but mostly they valued and relied on each other implicitly. Especially in the early years, it was Yeats relying on Gregory, who understood his talent overshadowed the others in their circle.Gregory as time went on, fought Yeats' corner tooth and nail, prepared to risk all other friendships. But I got the impression this was not because she wanted to protect their relationship for its own sake, but because she believed that the value of his work was greater than any other factor.Nevertheless her sensibility was slightly different to his. To me she comes over as Irish aristo, where as his sensibility was slightly more pan-European. Their first tiff was when he wanted to bring an English manager to the Abbey theatre.For a while they formed a triumvirate with Synge. I felt that Gregory found him hard to take at times, and I felt Judith Hill was slightly unappreciative of Synge herself, unlike Yeats, who clearly felt he was a major talent of the first order.Another slight point of difference I had with the author was over Yeats' poem `In Memory of Major Robert Gregory', which is one of my favourite of his poems. Hill explains that this was in some measure a collaboration between Yeats and Gregory as she kept badgering him to big up her son who had just died in the war, and Yeats apparently expressed his frustration about this.But in reading the poem, had you not known this, you would never have guessed, and in fact the praise of Robert Gregory, which is mostly for his prowess as a hunter, is completely at one with Yeats' values, so that frustration or not, as with a number of endeavours, the poems is effectively a successful collaboration between Yeats and his sponsor.The great thing about this book is that the relationships between Yeats, Gregory, Synge, George Moore, Russell, Martyn, Hyde and many others are delineated deftly and confidently, and situated in the multiple contexts of art, politics, and the successful struggle to establish an independent Irish theatre.Of course this is a biography of Gregory, not Yeats, and perhaps when I have read more of her own work, I will reread the sections which are about that more carefully, for my reading on this occasion was primarily to know more about Yeats and Synge. But these were close relationships, and this is a very valuable record.

Scholarly, shrewd, evocative, sympathetic, critical, fluent, persuasive, engaging and, ultimately, moving.I rather doubt that a better account could be written.If you are interested in this period and place, this is an indispensable read.

Fascinating story.

Having been attached to Yeats' poetry for nearly fifty years, I knew Lady Gregory and her house at Coole Park was very important to him. But until I read this beautifully written book I did not know how much.This book was first shown me by my landlady at a bed and breakfast in Galway, herself a frequent visitor to Coole Park, where it is possible to walk around the woods, although the house no longer exists. My landlady was convinced that Augusta Gregory and Yeats had an affair, although this is not the view of Judith Hill. However, by Hill's account the devotion shown over several decades to Yeats by Gregory was such that I can think of no parallel in any relationship between a man and woman I've ever heard of where there was no romantic involvement.Yeats' importance for Gregory was not only as a man, but as a poet, playwright, comrade, and partner over many years in running the Abbey theatre, so both had an enormous amount invested in the partnership.At times they disagreed and even fought, but mostly they valued and relied on each other implicitly. Especially in the early years, it was Yeats relying on Gregory, who understood his talent overshadowed the others in their circle.Gregory as time went on, fought Yeats' corner tooth and nail, prepared to risk all other friendships. But I got the impression this was not because she wanted to protect their relationship for its own sake, but because she believed that the value of his work was greater than any other factor.Nevertheless her sensibility was slightly different to his. To me she comes over as Irish aristo, where as his sensibility was slightly more pan-European. Their first tiff was when he wanted to bring an English manager to the Abbey theatre.For a while they formed a triumvirate with Synge. I felt that Gregory found him hard to take at times, and I felt Judith Hill was slightly unappreciative of Synge herself, unlike Yeats, who clearly felt he was a major talent of the first order.Another slight point of difference I had with the author was over Yeats' poem `In Memory of Major Robert Gregory', which is one of my favourite of his poems. Hill explains that this was in some measure a collaboration between Yeats and Gregory as she kept badgering him to big up her son who had just died in the war, and Yeats apparently expressed his frustration about this.But in reading the poem, had you not known this, you would never have guessed, and in fact the praise of Robert Gregory, which is mostly for his prowess as a hunter, is completely at one with Yeats' values, so that frustration or not, as with a number of endeavours, the poems is effectively a successful collaboration between Yeats and his sponsor.The great thing about this book is that the relationships between Yeats, Gregory, Synge, George Moore, Russell, Martyn, Hyde and many others are delineated deftly and confidently, and situated in the multiple contexts of art, politics, and the successful struggle to establish an independent Irish theatre.Of course this is a biography of Gregory, not Yeats, and perhaps when I have read more of her own work, I will reread the sections which are about that more carefully, for my reading on this occasion was primarily to know more about Yeats and Synge. But these were close relationships, and this is a very valuable record.

I have been a frequent visitor to Coole but have never previously appreciated the contribution of Lady Gregory to Irish life during the early 20th century, This is beautifully written and enthralling from beginning to end