inheritance and forging a bond that would last until Mary's death in 1836. Erin I. Bishop has drawn upon the more than one thousand letters they wrote to each other to tell this special story of their love. But this is much more than a person story; it is an in-depth portrait of early nineteenth-century social and domestic life in Ireland. In thematic chapters -- dealing with love and marriage, motherhood, domesticity, family and kin, sickness and health, and religion -- Bishop paints both an intimate picture of the life of one woman and a panoramic view of a time and a social stratum -- the Catholic middle class -- that have hitherto received inadequate attention. Erin L. Bishop is an historian with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield.

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