Standish O'Grady; selected essays and passages

INTRODUCTION
mention In the Wake of King James (1896), which was
not specifically "juvenile fiction," but childish, it must
be confessed, when compared with the writer's best
work. Also deserving of mention is that pseudony-
mous volume The Queen of the World, which was
presented to the public in 1900 over the name " I^uke
Netterville." In this book the author succumbs to
the temptation of writing the romance of the future,
he who had so wonderfully interpreted the romance
of the past. The Queen of the World belongs to that
order of fiction which includes More's Utopia,
Bellamy's Looking Backward, W. H. Hudson's Crystal
Age, Butler's Erewhon and the well-known fantasies
of H. G. Wells, with whom " I^uke Netterville " may
be more legitimately compared. O' Grady was right
to keep this volume apart from his other writings,
not because it is unworthy of them, for it is not, but
because of the utter dissimilarity of the note it strikes
in the harmony of his work. The Queen of the World
is superior to In the Wake of King James, but its
interest, nevertheless, lies rather in the fact that it is
the only Irish contribution in our time to the literature
of utopianism.
The political' writings of Standish O'Grady are an
important part of his claim to rank as one of the
greatest figures in contemporary Irish literature.
Like all inspired work, they often transcend the
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