Publisher Description

Flann O'Brien, along with Joyce and Beckett, is part of the holy trinity of modern Irish literature. His five novels–collected here in one volume–are a monument to his inspired lunacy and gleefully demented genius. O'Brien's masterpiece, At Swim-Two-Birds, is an exuberant literary send-up and one of the funniest novels of the twentieth century. The novel's narrator is writing a novel about another man writing a novel, in a Celtic knot of interlocking stories. The riotous cast of characters includes figures "stolen" from Gaelic legends, along with assorted students, fairies, ordinary Dubliners, and cowboys, some of whom try to break free of their author's control and destroy him. The narrator of The Third Policeman, who has forgotten his name, is a student of philosophy who has committed murder and wanders into a surreal hell where he encounters such oddities as the ghost of his victim, three policeman who experiment with space and time, and his own soul (who is named "Joe"). The Poor Mouth, a bleakly hilarious portrait of peasants in a village dominated by pigs, potatoes, and endless rain, is a giddy parody aimed at those who would romanticize Gaelic culture. A naïve young orphan narrates the deadpan farce The Hard Life, and The Dalkey Archive is an outrageous satiric fantasy featuring a mad scientist who uses relativity to age his whiskey, a policeman who believes men can turn into bicycles, and an elderly, bar-tending James Joyce. With a new Introduction by Keith Donohue

Author Biography

Flann O'Brien is the pseudonym of Brian O'Nolan, an Irish novelist and political commentator who was born in 1911 in County Tyrone and raised in Dublin. He entered the Irish civil service in 1937 and formally retired in 1953. From 1940 until his death, he wrote a political column called "Cruiskeen Lawn" for The Irish Times, under the pseudonym of Myles na Gopaleen; his biting, satiric commentaries made him the conscience of the Irish government. He died in 1966.

Review

"A real writer, with the true comic spirit."
—James Joyce

"Unquestionably a major author . . . Flann O'Brien assault[s] your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention."
—Anthony Burgess

"O'Brien was one of the comic geniuses of the 20th century."
—BOSTON GLOBE

"At Swim-Two-Birds has remained in my mind ever since it first appeared as one of the best books of our century. A book in a thousand . . . in the line of Ulysses and Tristram Shandy."
—Graham Greene

"At Swim-Two-Birds is both a comedy and fantasy of such staggering originality that it baffles description and very nearly beggars our sense of delight."
—CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"[The Third Policeman is] the funniest book ever written . . . and scariest."
—Charles Baxter, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

"The Poor Mouth shows a comic genius working close to his best capability. Humor of this quality, this intensity, is very rare; as witty in its language as in its invention, it cries to be read aloud."
—NEWSWEEK

Review Quote

"A real writer, with the true comic spirit." -James Joyce "Unquestionably a major author . . . Flann O'Brien assault[s] your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention." -Anthony Burgess "O'Brien was one of the comic geniuses of the 20th century." -BOSTON GLOBE "At Swim-Two-Birdshas remained in my mind ever since it first appeared as one of the best books of our century. A book in a thousand . . . in the line ofUlyssesandTristram Shandy." -Graham Greene "At Swim-Two-Birdsis both a comedy and fantasy of such staggering originality that it baffles description and very nearly beggars our sense of delight." -CHICAGO TRIBUNE "[The Third Policemanis] the funniest book ever written . . . and scariest." -Charles Baxter, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO "The Poor Mouthshows a comic genius working close to his best capability. Humor of this quality, this intensity, is very rare; as witty in its language as in its invention, it cries to be read aloud." -NEWSWEEK

Excerpt from Book

I N T R O D U C T I O N -- ''I considered it desirable that he should know nothing about me but it was even better if he knew several things which were quite wrong.'' So says the eccentric unnamed narrator of The Third Policeman, lost in a strange land, deliberately shielding his identity and true nature. The desire for self-effacement persists among all of the crazy narrators in Flann O''Brien''s five novels, and perhaps it is key to understanding the man behind the novel, who has hidden himself as well under a penname. For the very first thing to know about Flann O''Brien is that he is one of the creations of Brian O''Nolan. And there are more than one of him. Beginning in his college days and continuing on to the end of his life, O''Nolan was a serial pseudonymist, but we need only concern ourselves with two. In addition to Flann, the quondam author of the breathtaking At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman, The Hard Life, and The Dalkey Archive, there is Myles na gCopaleen, author of An Be

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