The Best of Frank O'Connor »

In smart, rhythmic prose, Julian Barnes can deconstruct English-French relations, marriage, or simply the history of the world -- he can, and has, in a diverse and inventive body of work that includes Flaubert's Parrot, Metroland, and Letters from London.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

The most generous one-volume collection ever published of short stories, autobiographical writings,poetry, and essays by the writer Yeats called “Ireland’s Chekhov.”

Selected and arranged thematically by Julian Barnes, the rich mix of writings in The Best of Frank O’Connor starts off with his most famous short story, “Guests of the Nation,” set during the Irish War of Independence; chronicles his childhood with an alcoholic father and protective mother; and traces his literary influences in brilliant essays on Joyce and Yeats. O’Connor’s wonderfully polyphonic tales of family, friendship, and rivalry are set beside those that bring to life forgotten souls on the fringes of society. O’Connor’s writings about Ireland vividly evoke the land he called home, while other stories probe the hardships and rewards of Irish emigration. Finally, we see O’Connor grappling, in both fiction and memoir, with the largest questions of religion and belief.

The Best of Frank O’Connor is a literary monument to a truly great writer.

Acknowledgment
Introduction
Select Bibliography
Chronology
About the Editor

1. WAR Preface Guests of the Nation Attack Jumbo’s Wife September Dawn Machine-Gun Corps in Action Laughter Soirée Chez une Belle Jeune Fille
From An Only Child — The Fight for Freedom
From The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution
From My Father’s Son — A Case of Hypnotism

2. CHILDHOOD Preface My Oedipus Complex
From An Only Child — Mother The Genius First Confession
From Writing a Story — One Man’s Way The Study of History
From An Only Child — A Love of Heights The Man of the World
From An Only Child — The Bandsmen The Cornet Player Who Betrayed Ireland

3. WRITERS Preface
Introduction to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
From James Joyce: A Post-Mortem
From My Father’s Son — George Russell and W. B. Yeats
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — Yeats Centenary Address at the Graveside of W. B. Yeats
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — The Tailor and Anstey

4. LONELY VOICES Preface The Procession of Life The Majesty of the Law After Fourteen Years May Night There is a Lone House Uprooted The Bridal Night A Bachelor’s Story Lonely Rock

5. IRELAND Preface A Learned Mistress Advice to Lovers I am Stretched on Your Grave A Word of Warning A Grey Eye Weeping
From My Father’s Son — Yeats as Editor Kilcash Hope
From Irish Miles — Father and Son
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught —
—Cork and Mental Age of Cities
—Cork
—Sligo
From The Backward Look
From Holiday Magazine

6. BETTER QUARRELLING Preface
From My Father’s Son — First Fiction
From The Saint and Mary Kate The Luceys Peasants Fish for Friday Old-Age Pensioners A Thing of Nothing News for the Church The Mad Lomasneys In the Train

7. ABROAD Preface The Babes in the Wood The Paragon Darcy in the Land of Youth The American Wife A Story by Maupassant The Conversion The Late Henry Conran Michael’s Wife
From My Father’s Son — The American Liner

8. LAST THINGS Preface
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — Monastery Song without Words
‘The Star that Bids the Shepherd Fold’
The Frying-Pan This Mortal Coil The Wreath
From An Only Child — Grandmother The Long Road to Ummera
From My Father’s Son — Tim Trayner The Mass Island