Number of Pages: 612
Genre: Literary Collections
Sub-Genre: Letters
Series Title: Irish Literature
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Age Range: Adult
Author: Flann O'Brien
Language: English
Book Synopsis
An unprecedented gathering of the correspondence of one of the great writers of twentieth century, the
Collected Letters of Flann O'Brien presents an intimate look into the life and thought of Brian O'Nolan, a prolific author of novels, stories, sketches, and journalism who famously wrote and presented works to the reading public under a variety of pseudonyms. Spanning the years 1934 to 1966, these compulsively readable letters show us O'Nolan, or O'Brien, or Myles Na gCopaleen-or whatever his name may be-at his most cantankerous and most intimate.
Review Quotes
"'Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature--of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O'Brien. . . . Flann O'Brien was too much his own man, Ireland's man, to speak in any but his own tongue."--Washington Post
"O'Brien is always worth investigation by the converted, the curious, and the endemically lighthearted."--Kirkus Reviews
"O'Brien was one of the comic geniuses of the 20th century . . . "--Boston Globe
"When the layers are peeled away, they reveal an imaginative comic genius with a genuine gift for language."--Publishers Weekly
"Wit, humor, satire, the exact fall of a Dublin syllable, the ear for the local turn, the flight of fancy that can spin into a Dublin joke or a Limerick limerick--all these are his."--New York Times
"A real writer, with the true comic spirit."--James Joyce
"Flann O'Brien is unquestionably a major author. His work, like that of Joyce, is so layered as to be almost Dante-esque. . . . Joyce and Flann O'Brien assault your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention."--Anthony Burgess