Fall of Titan

Of all Victorian statesmen the two who died under clouds of desertion and failure—Lord Randolph Churchill and Charles Stewart Parnell—most attract the historian and fascinate the reader. The great respectabilities, who dispensed imperial and colonial power to the British world, by that world are now forgotten. Churchill and Parnell survive in settings of Greek tragedy. The final act in the Parnell drama occupies The Fall of Parnell, by F.S.L. Lyons (British Book Centre, $10.50). In spite of appendices and bibliography it reads like a novel by Meredith. It was Lasalle’s political career and romance which fascinated Meredith and inspired The Tragic Comedians, his documented historical novel, which shows what he could have made of Parnell’s meteoric days in the eighties until he died in the arms of Kitty O’Shea in 1891.

It was one of the great love stories of history, but it was accompanied by a political saga involving Irish and English relations as never before. With the new franchise in the eighties Parnell collected a hard and fast following of eighty votes, exactly enough to dangle office before the eyes of Liberal or Conservative parties. They both took the bait: Gladstone with an open but fatal bid of Liberal Home Rule and Viceroy Carnavon at a secret meeting in an empty London house on behalf of the Conservatives.

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About the Author

Sir Shane Leslie

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Of all Victorian statesmen the two who died under clouds of desertion and failure—Lord Randolph Churchill and Charles Stewart Parnell—most attract the historian and fascinate the reader. The great respectabilities, who dispensed imperial and colonial power to the British world, by that world are now forgotten. Churchill and Parnell survive in settings of Greek tragedy. The final act in the Parnell drama occupies The Fall of Parnell, by F.S.L. Lyons (British Book Centre, $10.50). In spite of appendices and bibliography it reads like a novel by Meredith. It was Lasalle’s political career and romance which fascinated Meredith and inspired The Tragic Comedians, his documented historical novel, which shows what he could have made of Parnell’s meteoric days in the eighties until he died in the arms of Kitty O’Shea in 1891.

It was one of the great love stories of history, but it was accompanied by a political saga involving Irish and English relations as never before. With the new franchise in the eighties Parnell collected a hard and fast following of eighty votes, exactly enough to dangle office before the eyes of Liberal or Conservative parties. They both took the bait: Gladstone with an open but fatal bid of Liberal Home Rule and Viceroy Carnavon at a secret meeting in an empty London house on behalf of the Conservatives.