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Welcome to the fourth edition of Adam’s Book Club Newsletter.
The choice for November is The Countess Cathleen by W. B. Yeats
The Countess Cathleen is one of Yeats’s early works. It is a verse drama inspired by Irish folklore but set during the Great Hunger.
The story follows Cathleen, a wealthy landowner who sacrifices her soul to save the souls of the poor. It was published in 1892 under the title The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics. The play is dedicated to Maud Gonne who performed the role of Cathleen in its first performance at the Abbey Theatre on 14 December 1911. Yeats substantially revised the text for The Abbey.
Adam’s will be offering an edition of this work with a fascinating provenance relating to the Abbey Theatre. Published alongside Yeats' works under the title Poems, printed by T. FIsher Unwin Ltd, this copy includes the bookplate of Lennox Robinson (1886-1958), Irish dramatist, producer and director of the Abbey Theatre and close friend of Yeats.
Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre in 1904 and under his directorship it became an important centre that helped shape modern Irish drama and literature. When the Abbey theatre was in need of a manager in 1909, Yeats offered the post to Lennox Robinson. The two worked closely together and became lifelong friends. Robinson is credited with reviving the Abbey and was also the godfather of Yeats' son, Michael Butler Yeats. (1921-2007).
This edition of Poems once belonged to Robinson himself and contains his ownership bookplate designed by Jack B. Yeats and printed at Cuala Press by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats.
The book also contains the signature of Joseph J. Linnane (1910–81). Linnane was a RTÉ and BBC broadcaster and actor. He started his career with a debut performance at the Abbey Theatre when he was 19 years old. He joined the Abbey Second Company in 1932.
Let me know which edition you read and send me your thoughts so they can be included in next month’s book club.
Until next time, happy reading
Stephanie
Frankenstein continues to be one of my favourite books of all time,
I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned ?
I could write reams on why I think it’s incredible. For me, some of its most moving passages are those in which the Creature recounts his earliest experiences of the world, particularly his observations of De Lacey, Felix, Agatha and Safie. Through his eyes, Shelley places a fascinating and uncomfortable lens to aspects of the human condition that we easily and often take for granted.
‘Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?…, the strange system of human society was explained to me..., I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow-creatures were, high and unsullied descent united with riches. A man might be respected with only one of these advantages; but, without either, he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave...,'
Frankenstein is universal in so many aspects. I am yet to find another book that has matched its impact on me. It is telling that this is the first book club choice where no one gave a negative response.
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John ffrench was an instrumental figure in the design industry in Ireland and a distinguished pioneer of Irish studio pottery.
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"I should declare my hand. I have a weakness for pictures that punch above their physical weight, and for artists who have been quietly underrated for too long. This pair is both. They are intimate enough to live with at close quarters and serious enough to repay any amount of looking. If the market has lately shown signs of catching up with eighteenth-century Irish painting and I think it has, these two small panels feel, to me, like exactly the sort of thing that will look obvious in twenty years’ time."
Adam’s is honoured to present works from the collection of Lord Rossmore in the upcoming Country House Collections auction at Howth Castle on 28th April. It is seldom that an influential Irish family collection that has survived through the generations comes to the open market.
Works Sold at Adam’s Now in the Irish National Collection
A great opportunity to purchase both established and lesser-known artist’s work at an accessible price point, the Online Picture Auction is the first of many sales to be hosted at Adam’s in 2026. It is perfect for those looking to start a collection and the discerning collector alike.
Through this article, let our expert Adam Pearson guiding you to the (re)discovery of the once established Irish painter Richard O’Neill.
James Adam & Sons Ltd, Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers, 26 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,
D02 X665, Ireland
