JOSHUA KEVIN SOLAMO BSED-ENGLISH III

EL117:LITERARY CRITICISM

Composition:

A. Authorship(due on prelim exam)

1. Background of the Author

a. Personal Background

Anne Maeve Binchy or known with her pen name as Maeve Binchy was born
on 28 May 1939 in Dalkey. She is the oldest of the four children of William and
Maureen (née Blackmore) Binchy. Her siblings include one brother, William
Binchy, Regius Professor of Laws at Trinity College, Dublin, and two sisters:
Irene "Renie" (who predeceased Binchy), and Joan, Mrs Ryan. Her uncle was
the historian D. A. Binchy (1899–1989).

Binchy died on the 30th of July 2012. She was 73 and had suffered from
various maladies, including painful osteoarthritis. As a result of the arthritis,
she undergone a hip operation. A month before her death she suffered a severe
spinal infection (acute discitis), and finally succumbed to a heart attack.

b. Education

Educated at St Anne's (then located at No 35 Clarinda Park East), Dún

Laoghaire, and later at Holy Child Killiney, Maeve went on to study at
University College Dublin (where she earned a bachelor's degree in history).
After she graduated, she worked as a teacher of French, Latin, and history at
various girls' schools, then a journalist at The Irish Times, and later became a
writer of novels, and short stories.

c. Awards and Citations

In 1978, Binchy won a Jacob's Award for her RTÉ play, Deeply Regretted By.

A 1993 photograph of her by Richard Whitehead belongs to the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery and a painting of her by Maeve McCarthy,
commissioned in 2005, is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland.

In 1999, she received the British Book Award for Lifetime Achievement.

In 2000, she received a People of the Year Award.

In 2001, Scarlet Feather won the W H Smith Book Award for Fiction, defeating
works by Joanna Trollope and then reigning Booker winner Margaret Atwood,
amongst other contenders.

In 2007, she received the Irish PEN Award, joining such luminaries as John B.
Keane, Brian Friel, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, John McGahern and Seamus
Heaney.

In 2010, she received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book
Awards. In 2012, she received an Irish Book Award in the "Irish Popular Fiction
Book" category for A Week in Winter.

2. Works Published

a. Title and Date of Publication

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Light a Penny Candle 1982

The Lilac Bus 1984

Echoes 1985

Firefly Summer 1987

Silver Wedding 1988

Circle of Friends 1990

The Copper Beech 1992

The Glass Lake 1994

Shancarrig 1995

Evening Class 1996

Tara Road 1998

Scarlet Feather 2000

Quentins 2002

Nights of Rain and Stars 2004

Whitethorn Woods 2006

Heart and Soul 2008

Minding Frankie 2010

A Week in Winter 2012

Sister Caravaggio 2014

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

The Builders 2002

Star Sullivan 2006

A Week in Summer 2011

Full House 2012

Dusty's Winter 2016

The September Letters 2016

3. Background of the chosen piece for Book Review

Heart and Soul

Heart and Soul is a 2008 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. The plot
centers around what Binchy terms "a heart failure clinic" in Dublin and the
people involved with it. Several characters from Binchy's previous novels,
including Evening Class, Scarlet Feather, Quentins, and Whitethorn Woods,
make appearances.

Maeve Binchy, who suffered a "health crisis related to a heart condition" in

2002, was inspired to write Heart and Soul by her own experiences and
observations in the hospital.