The late-19th and early-20th century was a key period of cultural transition. Fiction was often used in plainly partisan or polemical fashion to advance changes in Irish society. Murphy explores the outlook of certain important social classes during this time frame through an assessment of Irish Catholic fiction. This study also provides a context for understanding the works of canonical authors such as Joyce and George Moore by discussing them in light of the almost forgotten writing from which they emerged - the several hundred novels which were written during the period, many of them by women writers.