Presentation parlour

by Kate O'Brien

With extraordinary charm and skill, Kate O'Brien shares the enchanting and heartily real story of her childhood in Limerick. Born in 1897, her mother had died when she and her eight brothers and sister were very young, and they were brought up by five remarkably individual aunts who made 'from five to forty-five different sorts of impressions' on their family life.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Kathleen Mary Louise "Kate" O'Brien, was an Irish novelist and playwright.

After the success of her play, Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books dealt with issues of female sexuality — with several exploring gay/lesbian themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury in 1974; she is buried in Faversham Cemetery.

The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings. In August 2005, Penguin reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien weekend, which takes place in Limerick, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Donna Girouard · Rating 2 out of 5]

O'Brien was clearly a well-spoken, articulate lady of her time; unfortunately (at least for me), her work comes off as outdated in its style. There is a great deal of narration and not much "scene." She frequently digresses from the story, and when she realizes it, she writes "but back to the parlour" or "I have veered from my story." Yeah, no kidding! Her narrative is also sprinkled with archaic expressions like "but, alas!"
Overall, I am sad to say that I found this book cumbersome and dull. I think I will not be reading anymore by this author.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting account of O'Brien's family, and certainly an insight into Irish family and religious life, but not particularly compelling