Liam O'Flaherty, Kate O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, Sean O'Faolain, and
Frank O'Connor--theirs were among the most distinctive voices in
Irish fiction in the twentieth century. Born within a few years of
each other near the turn of the century, they represented the first
literary generation to come of age in the shadow of Ireland's twin
monuments, Joyce's "Ulysses" and the poetry of William Butler
Yeats, and their work has too long remained in that shadow.
Raised in different parts of Ireland and in widely differing
milieux, all five lived through the turmoil of the revolution and
civil war that gave birth to the Irish Republic and on into the
disappointments of the thirties and forties. As their talents
matured, each developed a unique vision of Ireland, comic or
homely, angry or despairing. Despite its diversity, their fiction
shares a sense of disillusionment, loneliness, and radical
detachment from both culture and self.
John Hildebidle offers the first serious critical assessment of
these writers. He examines the common themes and concerns that run
through their work, among them family, war, the Troubles, myth,
death, and exile. As he demonstrates, all five authors saw in the
Ireland that grew out of the events of 1916-1923 a nation that
stifled the creative energies and bright hopes of its youth, and
their fiction can be seen as responding in diverse ways to that
reality. Hildebidle's perceptive analysis of their works should do
much to win these authors a place in the canon of modern fiction in
English.
The extensive annotated bibliography includes writings by and
about not only these five authors but also the Irish fiction
writers who succeeded them.
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