The novel is an epic, tracing the lives of a dozen characters as they are swept up in the tumultuous events that affected Dublin between 1907 and 1914. It was immensely popular when it was published, although a very conventional novel and sometimes laboured; the writing is direct and powerfully evokes the terrible poverty and the peculiar intimacy of pre-independence Dublin. One theme is the essential goodness of people and the tenderness which survives the brutality of deprivation. The popularity of the novel also owes something to events in Ireland in the early '70s, as The Troubles made the more traditional iconography of the insurrectionary period troublesome and economic stagnation and social crisis that fostered empathy for the former Dublin of tenements, working class heroes, and vagrant balladeers.

The novel is an epic, tracing the lives of a dozen characters as they are swept up in the tumultuous events that affected Dublin between 1907 and 1914. It was immensely popular when it was published, although a very conventional novel and sometimes laboured; the writing is direct and powerfully evokes the terrible poverty and the peculiar intimacy of pre-independence Dublin. One theme is the essential goodness of people and the tenderness which survives the brutality of deprivation. The popularity of the novel also owes something to events in Ireland in the early '70s, as The Troubles made the more traditional iconography of the insurrectionary period troublesome and economic stagnation and social crisis that fostered empathy for the former Dublin of tenements, working class heroes, and vagrant balladeers.