Product Description

In the five novels by Ireland's greatest comic writer, we can explore the full range of his invention, from the multi-layered madness of "At Swim-Two-Birds" to the piercing realism of "The Hard Life" and the surreal logic of "The Third Policeman". This is a world where bicycles listen to conversations, inventors search for methods of 'diluting' water, and characters play truant while novelists sleep; a world where spiteful fairies wreak havoc and heroes from legend blunder into suburban sitting-rooms. This is recognizably the Ireland of Joyce and Beckett - rowdy, high-spirited, by turns sensual and cerebral -transformed by O'Brien's unique vision.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77048 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 787 pages

About the Author
Brian O'Nolan (Irish: Brian O Nuallain) (October 5, 1911 - April 1, 1966) was a twentieth century Irish novelist and satirist, best known for his novels An Beal Bocht, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman written under the nom de plume Flann O'Brien. He also wrote many satirical columns in the Irish Times under the name Myles na gCopaleen. INTRODUCER BIOGRAPHY: Novelist and journalist Keith Donohue is the author of The Stolen Child and The Irish Anatomist: A Study of Flann O'Brien.

Customer Reviews

wild and legendary author
It is so good to have all five novels together. A Fine hardback, it could do with some more notes and commentary. However, that's a piffling complaint. Buy it and subsume yourself into genius . Better than ANY Irish writer of the past Century. His wit is so sharp and imagination so awesome.

omnium
Absolutely great to have these fine novels in one very fairly priced volume. O'Brien is a comic genius and his wild and unpredictable imaginaton is endlessly entertaining.His baleful and sardonic vision subverts the pretentions and hypocrises of what we thoughtlessly term reality. The 3rd Policeman is an overlooked masterpiece - surrealistic,subtle,inventive,wholely original and haunting. At Swim2birds is the original post-modern manifesto - I don't know where contemporary literature would be without it . O'Brien provides the material for whole generations of imitators . Surely the time has come to acknowledge this colossos of the comic novel.

O'Brien Has Been Well Served Here
Flann O'Brien's classic comic Irish novels have long been a source of joy to those who know them. They are some of the best comic works to come out of Ireland. Although I have owned them all separately (in paper and hard-cover)for years, this has provided me with a well-made, clearly-printed hard-covered edition of the novels together in one volume. My old copy of The Third Policeman was falling apart; now I can re-read it (and the other novels) in the knowledge I will not be losing pages.