Flann O'Brien (1911–1966)
Author of The Third Policeman
About the Author
Writer Brian O'Nolan was born on October 5, 1911. He graduated from University College, Dublin. This gifted Irish writer had three identities: Brian O'Nolan, an Irish civil servant and administrator; Myles Copaleen, columnist for the Irish Times, poet and author of An Beal Bocht (The Poor Mouth: A show more Bad Story about the Hard Life, 1941), a satire in Gaelic on the Gaelic revival; and Flann O'Brien, playwright and avant-garde comic novelist. His masterpiece, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), went almost unrecognized in its time. This novel, which plays havoc with the conventional novel form, is about a man writing a book about characters in turn writing about him. O'Brien starts off with three separate openings. The Third Policeman (1967), funny but grim, plunges into the world of the dead, though one is not immediately aware that the protagonist is no longer living. He died on April 1, 1966. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of Dalkey Archive Press
Works by Flann O'Brien
O Terceiro Polícia 2 copies
The Poor Mouth — Author — 2 copies
The Third Policeman 2 copies
An Beal Bocht 1 copy
The Best of Myles 1 copy
Irlanda 1 copy
John Duffy's Brother 1 copy
Binchy and Bergin and Best 1 copy
Brian, Flann and Miles 1 copy
No title 1 copy
Myles Before Myles 1 copy
Associated Works
The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss (2000) — Contributor — 216 copies
The Penguin Book of Irish Comic Writing (1996) — Author, some editions; Author, some editions — 25 copies
Great Irish Writing: The Best from the Bell (Classic Irish Fiction) (1978) — Contributor — 20 copies
The Brother [VHS] — Based on work — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Nualláin, Brian Ó
- Other names
- O'Nolan, Brian
gCopaleen, Myles na (pseudonym)
Gopaleen, Myles na (pseudonym)
Brother Barnabas (pseudonym)
Blakesley, Stephen (pseudonym)
Knowall, George (pseudonym) - Birthdate
- 1911-10-05
- Date of death
- 1966-04-01
- Burial location
- Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Strabane, Northern Ireland
- Place of death
- Dublin, Ireland
- Cause of death
- heart attack
- Places of residence
- Dublin, Ireland
- Education
- Blackrock College
University College Dublin - Occupations
- civil servant
dramatist
novelist - Organizations
- Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin)
Members
Discussions
"The Best of Myles" by Flann O'Brien in One Book One Thread (February 2020)
Reviews
Lists
Five star books (1)
Irish writers (4)
Translingualism (1)
Read This Next (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
Folio Society (1)
Best First Lines (1)
1960s (1)
Tour of Ireland (2)
Metafiction (2)
1930s (1)
Favourite Books (3)
Books (1)
Revolutions (1)
E's Reader (1)
Mooie titels (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 52
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 12,005
- Popularity
- #1,954
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 247
- ISBNs
- 280
- Languages
- 22
- Favorited
- 121
It’s a short collection of short pieces by the great man. The most interesting stuff is at the beginning, where he pokes fun at Irish language enthusiasts in a couple of pieces originally written in Irish (and heavily footnoted to explain the humour). Most of the middle section is material being tried out for deployment elsewhere (the story about the young man who was born for Ireland gets used twice).
At the end, Jack Fennell presents a story which he is certain is by a 21-year-old Flann O’Brien, and published in 1932 in, of all places, Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories – “Naval Control”, as by “John Shamus O’Donnell”. He has argued the case further in a recent Journey Planet, and I for one am convinced. How glorious, that Gernsback may have published the future author of The Third Policeman!
To be honest, I think this is really a book for Flann O’Brien completists, but there are a lot of us about, and it comes with a good foreword and scholarly apparatus.… (more)