The Short Fiction of Flann O'Brien

by Flann O'Brien, Neil Murphy (Editor), Keith Hopper (Editor)

Overview

This riotous collection at last gathers together an expansive selection of Flann O'Brien's shorter fiction in a single volume, as well as O'Brien's last and unfinished novel, Slattery's Sago Saga. 

Also included are new translations of several stories originally published in Irish, and other rare pieces. With some of these stories appearing here in book form for the very first time, and others previously unavailable for decades, Short Fiction is a welcome gift for every fan of Flann O'Brien.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564789877
Publisher:	Dalkey Archive Press
Publication date:	08/15/2013
Series:	Irish Literature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	930 KB

About the Author

Flann O'Brien, whose real name was Brian O'Nolan, also wrote under the pen name of Myles na Gopaleen. He was born in 1911 in County Tyrone. A resident of Dublin, he graduated from University College after a brilliant career as a student (editing a magazine called Blather) and joined the Civil Service, in which he eventually attained a senior position. He wrote throughout his life, which ended in Dublin on April 1, 1966. His other novels include The Dalkey Archive, The Third Policeman, The Hard Life, and The Poor Mouth, all available from Dalkey Archive Press. Also available are three volumes of his newspaper columns: The Best of Myles, Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn, and At War.

Neil Murphy is a professor of English at NTU, Singapore who has published widely on contemporary Irish fiction, including a monograph of the writer John Banville (2018) from Bucknell University Press.

Keith Hopper teaches Writing & Literature at the Institute of Technology, Sligo. Keith has written essays and reviews for the New Statesman and the Irish Times, and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.

Editorial Reviews

In so lovingly collecting and editing Flann O'Brien's widely scattered and almost forgotten short fiction, Neil Murphy and Keith Hopper have done the study of Irish literature a great service…This book [has] the great virtue of hauling O'Brien out from under the shadow of Joyce and Beckett. We see here a complicated modern writer; disheveled, hung over, restless, frustrated and, occasionally, very funny indeed.

The New York Times Book Review - Julian Gough

★ 08/12/2013
Irish late modernist writer O'Brien (The Third Policeman, At Swim Two Birds, The Poor Mouth) wrote in Gaelic under the name Brian Ó Nualláin, and in English as Brother Barnabus, Myles na gCopaleen, Lir O'Connor, and Brian Nolan, among others. This present collection contains work from many of these known pseudonymns, with Gaelic stories in translation, as well as the unfinished novel, Slattery's Sago Saga. The variety taken together displays a playful, sardonic voice that is charmingly self-conscious in its invention. In "Scenes in a Novel," for instance, O'Brien's narrator is an author who must reckon with the rebellious characters of a novel he is writing, particularly his anti-hero Carruthers McDaid, "a man…created one night when had swallowed nine stouts and vaguely blasphemous." The story "Two in One" is narrated by Murphy, a taxidermist's assistant who attempts to hide the murder of his boss by wearing the deceased's skin, eventually fusing with it, only to be imprisoned for the crime of killing himself. Mirroring his own ambiguous approach to identity, a myriad cast of characters and voices seem to all jostle for attention, delightful in their assurance that "ot everything in story is as unbelievable as it may seem." (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

If we don’t cherish the work of Flann O’Brien we are stupid fools who don’t deserve to have great men. Flann O'Brien is a very great man.” —Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange

From the Publisher