John Banville





John Banville

Author profile


born
December 08, 1945 in Wexford, Ireland

gender
male

genre


About this author

Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence of growing up in Wexford.

Educated at a Christian Brothers' school and at St Peter's College in Wexford. Despite having intended to be a painter and an architect he did not attend university. Banville has described this as "A great mistake. I should have gone. I regret not taking that four years of getting drunk and falling in love. But I wanted to get away from...more


Average rating: 3.46 · 15,247 ratings · 2,622 reviews · 51 distinct works
The Sea
3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 5,881 ratings — published 2005 — 34 editions
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The Book of Evidence
3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 961 ratings — published 1989 — 15 editions
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The Untouchable
3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 693 ratings — published 1997 — 20 editions
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The Infinities
3.22 of 5 stars 3.22 avg rating — 795 ratings — published 2009 — 22 editions
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Shroud
3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 avg rating — 311 ratings — published 2002 — 17 editions
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Ghosts
3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 228 ratings — published 2011 — 11 editions
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Doctor Copernicus
3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 194 ratings — published 1992 — 14 editions
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Athena
3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 190 ratings — published 2012 — 11 editions
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Eclipse: A Novel
3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 198 ratings15 editions
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Kepler: A novel
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 1993 — 11 editions
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March 2010, John Banville
"This is surely the greatest single volume of poetry ever published. Yeats the man was a ninny, but Yeats the poet was truly great." ...More

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“The past beats inside me like a second heart.”
John Banville, The Sea

“Life, authentic life, is supposed to be all struggle, unflagging action and affirmation, the will butting its blunt head against the world's wall, suchlike, but when I look back I see that the greater part of my energies was always given over to the simple search for shelter, for comfort, for, yes, I admit it, for cosiness. This is a surprising, not to say shocking, realisation. Before, I saw myself as something of a buccaneer, facing all-comers with a cutlass in my teeth, but now I am compelled to acknowledge that this was a delusion. To be concealed, protected, guarded, that is all I have ever truly ever wanted, to burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there, hidden from the sky's indifferent gaze and the air's harsh damagings. That is why the past is just such a retreat for me, I go there eagerly, rubbing my hands and shaking off the cold present and the colder future. And yet, what existence, really, does it have, the past? After all, it is only what the present was, once, the present that is gone, no more than that. And yet.”
John Banville, The Sea

“Happiness was different in childhood. It was so much then a matter simply of accumulation, of taking things - new experiences, new emotions - and applying them like so many polished tiles to what would someday be the marvellously finished pavilion of the self.”
John Banville, The Sea

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL WINTER CHALLENGE - 2008/2009 2174 3455 Mar 04, 2009 07:03am  
Between the Lines: The Man Booker Prize 18 117 Jun 27, 2009 01:41pm  
Listomania: John Banville's Top Ten 1 58 Aug 14, 2009 08:01am  
Constant Reader: literary writers 66 89 Nov 29, 2009 06:06pm  
Glens Falls (NY) ...: What are U reading these days? (Part Five) (begun 3/12/09) 1049 448 Dec 31, 2009 10:39pm  
The Next Best Boo...: Tani's Goals for 2009 25 250 Jan 01, 2010 03:05pm  
The Next Best Boo...: Opening Paragraphs 353 1058 Feb 15, 2010 06:12pm  
Bookish: Great Britain 3 41 Apr 26, 2010 12:44pm  
The Seasonal Read...: Jennifer D.'s (Canada) Book Thoughts 28 136 May 26, 2010 01:51pm  
CafeMom-The Book ...: Find a Book cover 6 14 Aug 02, 2010 10:06pm  


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