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Maud Gonne

By (author) Margaret Ward

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In this biography, Margaret Ward gives the reader a portrait of Maud Gonne as a significant figure in Irish politics and as a remarkable woman. She dispels the popular myth that Maud was little more than a flamboyant beauty and the inspiration of W.B. Yeats's great love poetry. Despite her privileged position as the daughter of a British army officer she took up the cause of Irish freedom as her life's work, and as a woman of independent means she was also able to escape many of the stifling conventions of Victorian Britain. Dismissive of her own beauty, yet constantly pursued because of it, in Ireland she was a symbol of romantic nationalism while in France she led a secret life with her lover, Millevoye, and her children. In her later years she campaigned tirelessly with the women relatives of those in jail, enduring prison and hunger strike on behalf of those she regarded as political prisoners. Margaret Ward sheds new light on this figure and reveals her to be one of Ireland's most courageous and charismatic women of modern times. The author also wrote ""Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism"".