The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893-1938

Rating:
Summary: A feminist and a poet
Review: First off, let me tell you I love reading letters so this book has definite appeal to me. And of course, Yeats was Yeats and Gonne, as you may or may not know, was a famous feminist in Ireland. That the relationship continued for so many years despite her contunual refusals to marry him says olumes about the personalities of these two people.
If you're interested in what made Yeats tick or how a feminist conducted herself without major media support, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Letters of love, passion and politics
Review: This is a wonderful volume. The love of Yeats for Maud Gonne is one of the defining characteristics of his life and the passion he felt for her powered some of his strongest poems. Reading these letters you get a marvellous feel for the strength of the woman and her respect and love for the poet, despite turning down many marriage proposals.

Maud Gonne was much more than the woman beloved of Yeats, she was also a political activist, a woman convinced of the need for Irish nationalism and prepared to work for the benefit of the Irish people. This comes through in her letters to Yeats through her mention of meetings and rallies.

I can almost forgive her destruction of almost all the letters she received from Yeats, which explains the one sided nature of this volume, almost all the letters are from Gonne to Yeats with only a few from him to her.

This volume is a superb addition to the library of anyone who enjoys Yeats. It is also gives a remarkable understanding of Maud Gonne, a major element in the Irish history of the early 20th century. It loses a star because of the shortage of Yeats letters.