March is Reading Ireland Month, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books, so I looked at my unread books by Irish authors and decided on this one, The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small. Neil Jordan is better known as a film director (his directing credits include Interview with the Vampire and The Company of Wolves) but has also written several novels and short story collections. This is the first of his books that I’ve read.
The Lord Edward of the title is a real person – Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an 18th century Irish aristocrat and revolutionary. His life has been well documented but little is known about his relationship with his servant, Tony Small. At the beginning of the novel, Fitzgerald is fighting for the British Army in the American Revolution when he is wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in September 1781. Small, an escaped slave, rescues him from the battlefield and saves his life, and in return Fitzgerald frees him from slavery. Small then chooses to remain in Fitzgerald’s service when he leaves America and travels first to London, then home to Dublin, and later to France.
As time goes by, Small becomes Fitzgerald’s constant companion and close friend, but never loses sight of the fact that he is a servant and their racial and class differences mean that society will never consider him the equal of his lord. While Fitzgerald enters into a romantic liaison with Elizabeth Sheridan, wife of the famous playwright Richard Sheridan, before becoming involved in revolutionary politics and working towards an independent Irish republic, Small gets to know the other servants in the grand houses they reside in and takes steps to learn about his own heritage.
This could have been a great novel – it covers a period of Irish history not written about very often and seeing things through the eyes of a former slave provides an interesting perspective – but I didn’t like the writing style at all. I have no idea why it seems to have become the fashion for authors to ignore conventional punctuation, in this case speech marks. I found it very difficult to tell where the dialogue began and ended or who was speaking to whom and I had to keep going back to read the same sections more than once before I could follow what was being said. Punctuation was invented to help the reader; choosing not to use it just makes things unnecessarily confusing.
I do appreciate having had the opportunity to learn about the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the significance of Tony Small and there were some parts of the book that I enjoyed. It was interesting to see other well known historical figures such as Richard Sheridan and Thomas Paine making appearances in the story and I loved the way Jordan showed Small developing a passion for theatre and literature (obviously two passions of Jordan’s own). However, the book felt uneven, with too much time spent on some episodes and not enough on others – the last few months of Fitzgerald’s life seemed particularly rushed.
I had mixed feelings about this one, then, and I’m not sure whether I would read anything else by Neil Jordan, but I’m pleased I managed to fit in a Reading Ireland book this month, as well as the Welsh ones I’ve read for Reading Wales!
Book 14/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024
She Reads Novels 
You did well to continue to the end – that lack of punctuation for me would’ve sealed its fate. A pity as this slice of fictionalised history sounds fascinating.
With normal punctuation I think it could have been a great book! Such a shame.
I do agree with you about the punctuation, it’s why I can’t read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha although I really want to!
Yes, it’s very off-putting. I don’t think I’ll be reading Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha anytime soon either!
That’s too bad. I would prefer punctuation, but sometimes the lack of it doesn’t bother me. However, if you can’t tell if a character is speaking or not, or who’s speaking, that’s a problem.
It doesn’t always bother me as much as it did this time. I found it very confusing.
I’m read one like that now. It’s not too confusing, but every once in a while I am not sure whether someone is talking.
I’ve had this on my bookshelf for ages and I think it’s likely to stay there a bit longer given your thoughts. I did enjoy his latest book, The Well of St Nobody, which was quite different to this.
I wish I had tried that one instead!
A shame this didn’t fully work Helen. I’ve never read Jordan’s fiction but possibly there are better places to start!
Another commenter has recommended The Well of St Nobody, so maybe that’s a better starting point!
I’ll make a note of that one!
I hate when authors don’t use quotation marks. Are they just too lazy? ;D
The history of these two men is so interesting; I’d never heard of either.
I hadn’t heard of them until I read this book either. It was really interesting, but the lack of quotation marks made it difficult to read.
I’m afraid I more and more often assume that authors choose to use quirky style to cover up the fact that they don’t really have anything worth saying. I think it’s rudeness towards the reader, and I’m less and less likely to plough through a book when an author can’t even be bothered to make the effort to use correct grammar! I guess some authors just don’t mind putting people off their books… 😉
Yes, I think that’s probably sometimes the case, although I do think this book had the potential to be really good. I’m curious to know whether there are people who actually prefer books written with incorrect grammar and punctuation. I only see people complaining about it, which makes it even more senseless for authors to continue doing it!
I would think this is an example where an audiobook would be better because then you don’t notice the lack of punctuation!!
Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
That’s a good point! I would probably have found an audiobook much less annoying.
Lack of speech marks always bother me but oddly, not this time.. I think Jordan is a clear and concise writer. Maybe because he writes screenplays as well? His character’s voices are so different. For me they remained clear. What I found fascinating about the book was how he weaves in the ballad theme. The lyrics of hangings at jails, strife and hardship and sadness, misery – but the songs vernacular and limerick rhythm make them timeless.
The lack of speech marks bother me every time – I wish authors wouldn’t do it, but it seems to be increasingly common in modern books. I’ve just finished another one without speech marks (The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry) and it spoiled that book for me too. Otherwise I did like Neil Jordan’s writing and I agree that the way he worked the ballad theme into the novel was very well done. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
You are right. It is a detraction from enjoying the story. Quotation marks, and other tools to make the narrative flow for readers were invented for a reason. If the authors – Jordan and Barry – chose to write without speech marks, the publisher should have inserted them. I blame the publishers because they are the ones who make the decision to produce the book without them. That is actually their job – to produce the finished product for the reader. I think that there are a lot of new-fangled standards in the publishing industry which are just sad. It stems from a policy of profits over quality. I have purchased e-books, from some big publishers, full of typos, and that is just so annoying and unacceptable. Publishers are expected to cut costs and maximize profits, and I understand that, but they don’t have to settle for a blighted product, either. I think they work really hard in the marketing realm, to gain public attention and to anticipate the next blockbuster, the next mass obsession. But the actual completed books they produce for the market are the lowest possible quality they can get away with. I see this with computer applications as well. Each new software update is worse than the last. I hope this does not become a trendy thing, with quotation marks becoming obsolete. That would be a nightmare!
ChiefZombie is Caroline 🙂 I forgot my password and got an exciting user name as a consolation prize 🙂