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Dutch Interior
Ireland's greatest story-teller is at his best in this novel. Savage in its characterization, devastating in its- portrayal of the squalor and enforced idleness of provincial Ireland, it has been compared with Joyce's writing on his native Dublin.Still Frank O'Connor cannot fail to find tenderness and wit, nor to hold his reader to the end.
296 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1940
About the author
Frank O'Connor
164 books134 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Frank O’Connor (born Michael Francis O'Connor O'Donovan) was an Irish author of over 150 works, who was best known for his short stories and memoirs. Raised an only child in Cork, Ireland, to Minnie O'Connor and Michael O'Donovan, his early life was marked by his father's alcoholism, indebtness and ill-treatment of his mother.
He was perhaps Ireland's most complete man of letters, best known for his varied and comprehensive short stories but also for his work as a literary critic, essayist, travel writer, translator and biographer.[5] He was also a novelist, poet and dramatist.[6]
From the 1930s to the 1960s he was a prolific writer of short stories, poems, plays, and novellas. His work as an Irish teacher complemented his plethora of translations into English of Irish poetry, including his initially banned translation of Brian Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán Oíche ("The Midnight Court"). Many of O'Connor's writings were based on his own life experiences — his character Larry Delaney in particular. O'Connor's experiences in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War are reflected in The Big Fellow, his biography of Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins, published in 1937, and one of his best-known short stories, Guests of the Nation (1931), published in various forms during O'Connor's lifetime and included in Frank O'Connor — Collected Stories, published in 1981.
O'Connor's early years are recounted in An Only Child, a memoir published in 1961 but which has the immediacy of a precocious diary. U.S. President John F. Kennedy quoted from An Only Child in his remarks introducing the American commitment to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Kennedy described the long walks O'Connor would take with his friends and how, when they came to a wall that seemed too formidable to climb over, they would throw their caps over the wall so they would be forced to scale the wall after them. Kennedy concluded, "This nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space and we have no choice but to follow it."[7] O'Connor continued his autobiography through his time with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, which ended in 1939, in his book, My Father's Son, which was published in 1968, after O'Connor's death.
Frank O’Connor (born Michael Francis O'Connor O'Donovan) was an Irish author of over 150 works, who was best known for his short stories and memoirs. Raised an only child in Cork, Ireland, to Minnie O'Connor and Michael O'Donovan, his early life was marked by his father's alcoholism, indebtness and ill-treatment of his mother.
He was perhaps Ireland's most complete man of letters, best known for his varied and comprehensive short stories but also for his work as a literary critic, essayist, travel writer, translator and biographer.[5] He was also a novelist, poet and dramatist.[6]
From the 1930s to the 1960s he was a prolific writer of short stories, poems, plays, and novellas. His work as an Irish teacher complemented his plethora of translations into English of Irish poetry, including his initially banned translation of Brian Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán Oíche ("The Midnight Court"). Many of O'Connor's writings were based on his own life experiences — his character Larry Delaney in particular. O'Connor's experiences in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War are reflected in The Big Fellow, his biography of Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins, published in 1937, and one of his best-known short stories, Guests of the Nation (1931), published in various forms during O'Connor's lifetime and included in Frank O'Connor — Collected Stories, published in 1981.
O'Connor's early years are recounted in An Only Child, a memoir published in 1961 but which has the immediacy of a precocious diary. U.S. President John F. Kennedy quoted from An Only Child in his remarks introducing the American commitment to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Kennedy described the long walks O'Connor would take with his friends and how, when they came to a wall that seemed too formidable to climb over, they would throw their caps over the wall so they would be forced to scale the wall after them. Kennedy concluded, "This nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space and we have no choice but to follow it."[7] O'Connor continued his autobiography through his time with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, which ended in 1939, in his book, My Father's Son, which was published in 1968, after O'Connor's death.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 19, 2020
Great picture of Cork City in the early decades of the 20th century. O'Connor doesn't hold back in his critisim of Church and State and the social hierarchies of the period. His characters have a wonderful reality and warmth - authentic people navigating the trials and tribulations of life. The city of trams, gaslight, quays and bridges is the central character in this portrait of a particular era in Cork's history.
February 7, 2019
3 1/2 stars
I was curious to read something by O'Connor since he was a writer who was quoted by President John F. Kennedy. This particular novel originally published in 1940 was a bit scattered for my taste. Although I love the writing itself, the characters were introduced randomly and revisited at odd times - it was hard to keep up with the storyline, and you wondered why some parts were included at all since you never found a follow-up of the situation. As all Irish writers, though, he had a great command of the English language:
"Tiny figures darted under umbrellas for cars or buses, whose lights added to the confusion of scintillations upon the black mirror of the street."
I was curious to read something by O'Connor since he was a writer who was quoted by President John F. Kennedy. This particular novel originally published in 1940 was a bit scattered for my taste. Although I love the writing itself, the characters were introduced randomly and revisited at odd times - it was hard to keep up with the storyline, and you wondered why some parts were included at all since you never found a follow-up of the situation. As all Irish writers, though, he had a great command of the English language:
"Tiny figures darted under umbrellas for cars or buses, whose lights added to the confusion of scintillations upon the black mirror of the street."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews