Illustrations taken from frontispiece to 1861 edition.
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A note on the text:
In an effort to make searching and referencing easier, the original page numbering has been inserted at appropriate places within the text. In addition, Mary Anne Sadlier's style and extensive use of dialect has been maintained. Sadlier's style differs from modern editing style in her frequent use of exclamation points, dashes and commas; she consistently does not capitalize the words following an interjection or broken phrase. The original orthography also has been preserved.
In addition, I have given each chapter a short title. Although Sadlier gave descriptive chapter titles to her 1855 novel The Blakes and the Flanagans, she only titled one chapter of Bessy Conway -- "Chapter III -- The Storm." I have created these titles purely for ease of reference for the reader; in writing the titles I have attempted to give a brief plot summary, and well as stick closely Sadlier's writing style.
Lastly for aesthetic reasons I also have added illustrations complement the story line of each chapter. The 1861 D. & J. Sadlier edition includes only two illustrations -- the drawing of Bessy Conway to the left, and the "Castle of Ardfinnan" that illustrates Chapter 22. All other illustrations and photographs have been taken from other sources, purely for visual effect.
This hypertext edition was taken from the original 1861 edition by D. & J. Sadlier. Bessy Conway was originally serialized in the New York Tablet.
Illustrations taken from frontispiece to 1861 edition.
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