BAN IM, Roux, a celebrated Irish novelist, b. 1800. whose pictures of manners, in the form of tales, have excited considerable interest in England. His aim was to become for Ireland what Scott had been for Scotland. He has given proof of vigorous intel lectual grasp and vivid fancy, in a series of pictures of life, in which he delineates the peculiarities of the Irish character in strong light and shade, and appeals forcibly to the national feeling. His Tales of the O'Hara Family (London, 1825) were followed, in 1826, by a second series, which did not disappoint the high expectations excited by the first. Of these. several have been translated into German by Lindan. Next appeared The Battle of the Boyne, The Croppy (1828), The bcnouneed (1830), he Smuggler (1831), The Mayor of Windgap, Father Connell, etc. In 1837, general sympathy having been attracted towards B.'s privations, occasioned by disease that precluded all literary exertion. a pension of A.:150 per annum from the civil list was awarded him by govern
ment, which was afterwards further increased by £40 for the education of his daughter, an only ebild. Ile died in poverty on the 1st Aug., 1842, at Windgap cottage, near Kilkenny.
B. failed in his attempt to portray the manners and frivolities of the higher classes; but none of his predecessors, such as Edgeworth, Morgan, and Crofton Croker, have succeeded in depicting so vividly and truly the Irish peasant, with his picturesque peculiarities in his sufferings and errors. Althongli generally happy in the plot and development of his story, he is too much disposed to dwell ou the horrible. His denun ciations may be well founded, but they disturb the poetic effect. B. was also not quite free fmni a somewhat tiresome minuteness of description, and his imitation of Scott is frequently very palpable.