Flann O'Brien





Flann O'Brien

Author profile


born
October 05, 1911 in Strabane, Ireland

died
April 01, 1966

gender
male

genre

influences


About this author

Pseudonym of Brian Ó Nualláin, also known as Brian O'Nolan.


His English novels appeared under the name of Flann O’Brien, while his great Irish novel and his newspaper column (which appeared from 1940 to 1966) were signed Myles na gCopaleen or Myles na Gopaleen – the second being a phonetic rendering of the first. One of twelve brothers and sisters, he was born in 1911 in Strabane, County Tyrone, into an Irish-speaking family. His father had learned Irish while a young man during the Gaelic revival the son was later to mock. O’Brien’s childhood has been described as happy, though somewhat insular, as the language spoken at home was not that spoken by their neighbours. The Irish language had long been in decline, and Strabane was not in an Iri...more


Average rating: 3.97 · 8,388 ratings · 1,015 reviews · 34 distinct works
The Third Policeman
4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 avg rating — 3,993 ratings — published 1967 — 37 editions
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At Swim-Two-Birds
3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 2,620 ratings — published 1939 — 35 editions
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The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story...
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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 548 ratings — published 1941 — 16 editions
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The Dalkey Archive
3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 465 ratings — published 1964 — 17 editions
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The Best of Myles
4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 237 ratings7 editions
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The Hard Life
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 198 ratings — published 1961 — 16 editions
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The Complete Novels
4.55 of 5 stars 4.55 avg rating — 94 ratings2 editions
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Further Cuttings
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 60 ratings3 editions
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The Various Lives of Keats ...
3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 1976 — 6 editions
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At War
4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions
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More books by Flann O'Brien…
“Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”
Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

“You mean that because I have no name I cannot die and that you cannot be held answerable for death even if you kill me?"

"That is about the size of it," said the Sergeant.

I felt so sad and so entirely disappointed that tears came into my eyes and a lump of incommunicable poignancy swelled tragically in my throat. I began to feel intensely every fragment of my equal humanity. The life that was bubbling at the end of my fingers was real and nearly painful in intensity and so was the beauty of my warm face and the loose humanity of my limbs and the racy health of my red rich blood. To leave it all without good reason and to smash the little empire into small fragments was a thing too pitiful even to refuse to think about.”
Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

“I saw that my witticism was unperceived and quietly replaced it in the treasury of my mind.”
Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds

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