{"product_id":"finding-mangan","title":"Hourican Bridget: Finding Mangan [2024] paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJune 1849:\u003c\/strong\u003e Dr William Wilde, passing a wretched hovel in Dublin's Liberties, discovers James Clarence Mangan in a state of indescribable misery and squalor. Aged just 46, the man dubbed 'Ireland's National Poet' is about to succumb to the cholera epidemic that is gripping famine ravaged Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAugust 2008:\u003c\/strong\u003e Writer Bridget Hourican encounters Mangan during a Liberties lock-in with that other great Irish poet, Shane MacGowan, who found inspiration in Mangan's poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlcoholic, opium addict, Romantic, Famine poet, Dublin street character and hero of James Joyce, the mercurial Mangan begins to obsess Bridget. The surviving biographical material - scant, subjective, sometimes falsified - both fascinates and frustrates her and she determines to find him. Who was this Baudelaire of The Liberties - this lurker in Irish history whose enigmatic presence helped determine its course?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the lines between research and real life become blurred, Bridget starts to notice aspects of her life bleeding into Mangan's. An obsession becomes a haunting and she realises that the only way to truly reach Mangan is to reckon with her own ghosts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003eFinding Mangan\u003c\/em\u003e resurrects Ireland's most enigmatic literary figuring, restoring his rightful place in the national consciousness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Imaginative and absorbing, at last Mangan has found the perfect biographer.' \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Banville\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A new, shapeshifting approach to biography . . . It reads like a dream.' \u003cstrong\u003eRoy Foster\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bridget Hourican","offers":[{"title":"Like New","offer_id":52555076567379,"sku":"XE80717194834","price":16.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"New","offer_id":48984240226643,"sku":"9780717194834","price":21.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/bridget-hourican-hourican-bridget-finding-mangan-2024-paperback-9780717194834-57205409644883.jpg?v=1765279967","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/finding-mangan","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}