"The News from Ireland"opens with the reflections of Fogarty, a butler in the home of the Pulvertafts, an English family who came to Ireland to claim an estate left to Mr. Pulvertaft by an uncle. The Pulvertafts came to Ireland eight years ago, in 1839. Over the years, the Pulvertafts have cleared the overgrown estate grounds and, in general, learned "to live with things." Fogarty wishes they had left the estate unclaimed. Like Ireland's other "visitors," they have taken what is not theirs.

A new English governess has recently arrived at the Pulvertaft estate. Anna Maria Heddoe fascinates Fogarty because she is another visitor who does not truly belong in Ireland. His obsession leads him to read her diary and correspondence.

Anna Maria's diary records her homesickness and her confusion at the place in which she now resides. She understands that outside the walls of the...