Maurice Harmon: Selected Essays assembles published articles with unpublished talks and lectures, all of which show Harmon’s lively, readable style and draw upon a lifetime of study and contemplation. They provide authoritative readings of Irish writers and their work over three centuries, beginning with discussions of the origins and development of Irish literature in the nineteenth century and of the issues and contexts that determined the formation of an indigenous literature. They conclude with assessments of Modern Irish Literature in the work of such poets as John Montague, Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney, and more recent figures. Other essays concentrate on writers and topics in the post-colonial, post-revolutionary period - Patrick Kavanagh, Sean O'Faolain, Mary Lavin and Francis Stuart - and show the variety and the vitality of their commitment to artistic freedom. With clarity, vigour, and good sense, Harmon considers their historical and cultural milieus. Editorials from Poetry Ireland Review and the influential Advice for a Poet engage with the current generation of Irish poets and reflect his critical values. The originality of its perspective places Selected Essays in a class of its own. It complements rather than competes with other work in the field. Scholars, students, and the general reader will benefit from these accounts of significant Irish writers and their work by a distinguished specialist.