An intimate study of three of Ireland's greatest writers from one of its best-loved
contemporary voices Colm Tóibín__________________In Mad Bad Dangerous to Know Colm Tóibín
takes three of Ireland's greatest writers - Oscar Wilde W.B. Yeats and James Joyce - and
examines their earliest influences: their fathers.With his inimitable wit and sensitivity
Tóibín introduces us to Wilde Senior the philandering doctor whose libel case prefigured that
of his son the elder Yeats an impoverished artist who never finished a painting and to John
Stanislaus Joyce the hard-drinking storytelling father of James who couldn't feed his own
family.This is an illuminating study of how each of these men cast a long shadow not only over
the lives of their famous sons but over the works for which they are celebrated and
cherished.__________________'Astonishing to read. Tóibín has a hawk-like eye for literary
subtleties and a generosity towardshis subjects that is warm' Sunday Times'Funny exciting
illuminating wonderful so engaging. Tells us more than a little about our own selves along
the way' Irish Times'There is something interesting and insightful on almost every page'
Observer'Sparkling subtle witty and often deeply moving . . . A classic' Fintan O'Toole New
Statesman'Scintillating imaginative enlightening and powerfully moving throughout' Roy Foster
Spectator
