Imatge de l'autor

Edna O'Brien

Autor/a de The Little Red Chairs

80+ obres 8,970 Membres 233 Ressenyes 18 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Writer Edna O'Brien was born in Clare County, Ireland, in 1930 and attended Pharmaceutical College in Dublin. O'Brien, winner of the Kingsley Amis Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Price and the European Literature Prize, has written short stories, novels, plays, television plays and screenplays. mostra'n més She has also written for such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal and The New Yorker. (Bowker Author Biography) Edna O'Brien's previous works of fiction include "Down by the River", "House of Splendid Isolation", "Time & Tide", & "Lantern Slides", which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her book about James Joyce was published in 1999 & excerpted in "The New Yorker". An honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, O'Brien grew up in Ireland & now lives in London. (Publisher Provided) mostra'n menys
Crèdit de la imatge: Edna O'Brien, pictured in 1968.

Sèrie

Obres de Edna O'Brien

The Little Red Chairs (2015) 801 exemplars
The Country Girls (1960) 764 exemplars
Girl with Green Eyes (1962) 511 exemplars
In the Forest (2002) 502 exemplars
House of Splendid Isolation (1994) 455 exemplars
James Joyce (1999) 357 exemplars
Country Girl (2012) 339 exemplars
August is a Wicked Month (1965) 317 exemplars
Wild Decembers (1999) 300 exemplars
Girl (2019) 288 exemplars
Down by the River (1996) 286 exemplars
The Light of Evening (2006) 273 exemplars
Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964) 272 exemplars
A Fanatic Heart: Selected Stories (1984) 267 exemplars
A Pagan Place (1970) 249 exemplars
Saints and Sinners (2011) 176 exemplars
Night (1972) 175 exemplars
Mother Ireland (1976) 157 exemplars
Lantern Slides (1990) 149 exemplars
The High Road (1988) 143 exemplars
The Love Object: Selected Stories (2013) 140 exemplars
Time and Tide (1992) 140 exemplars
The Love Object: Stories (1968) 125 exemplars
Tales for the Telling: Irish Folk and Fairy Stories (1986) — Autor — 117 exemplars
Johnny, I Hardly Knew You (1977) 91 exemplars
Casualties of Peace (1966) 90 exemplars
Virginia: A Play (1656) 65 exemplars
Philip Roth at 80: A Celebration (2014) — Col·laborador — 57 exemplars
Returning (1982) 55 exemplars
Mrs. Reinhardt & Other Stories (1978) 52 exemplars
Zee & Co. (1971) 39 exemplars
Some Irish Loving (1979) 33 exemplars
Paradise: Faber Stories (2019) 25 exemplars
Vanishing Ireland (1986) 22 exemplars
A Rose in the Heart (1979) 17 exemplars
Edna O'Brien Reader (1994) 17 exemplars
James and Nora (1981) 15 exemplars
Oggetto d'amore : i racconti (2016) 8 exemplars
Girl with Green Eyes [1964 film] (1964) — Novel and Screenplay — 5 exemplars
Haunted (2010) 4 exemplars
Shovel Kings (2009) 3 exemplars
Arabian days (1977) 3 exemplars
The Rescue (1983) 3 exemplars
The Paris Review 92 1984 Summer (1984) — Col·laborador — 2 exemplars
Irish Revel (1998) 2 exemplars
Joyce's Women (2022) 2 exemplars
Sister Imelda 2 exemplars
Menina (Portuguese Edition) (2020) 1 exemplars
Love's lesson (2000) 1 exemplars
Triptych - Acting Edition (2005) 1 exemplars
Casualties of Peace 1 exemplars
Landa aldeko neskak 1 exemplars
A Christmas Treat (1982) 1 exemplars
A Journey 1 exemplars

Obres associades

The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories (1989) — Col·laborador — 423 exemplars
Women & Fiction: Short Stories By and About Women (1975) — Col·laborador — 361 exemplars
The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories (1994) — Col·laborador — 308 exemplars
Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame (2003) — Col·laborador — 293 exemplars
The Pleasure of Reading (1992) — Col·laborador — 186 exemplars
Nothing But You: Love Stories From The New Yorker (1997) — Col·laborador — 182 exemplars
Erotica: Women's Writing from Sappho to Margaret Atwood (1990) — Col·laborador — 168 exemplars
The Best American Essays 1995 (1995) — Col·laborador — 156 exemplars
The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (1999) — Col·laborador — 150 exemplars
The Penguin Book of Irish Short Stories (1981) — Col·laborador — 128 exemplars
Mistresses of the Dark [Anthology] (1998) — Col·laborador — 118 exemplars
The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Col·laborador — 115 exemplars
Deep Down: The New Sensual Writing by Women (1988) — Col·laborador — 114 exemplars
The Penguin Book of Modern Women's Short Stories (1990) — Col·laborador — 99 exemplars
The Treasury of English Short Stories (1985) — Col·laborador — 81 exemplars
The Literary Lover: Great Stories of Passion and Romance (1993) — Col·laborador — 50 exemplars
The Virago Book of Such Devoted Sisters (1993) — Col·laborador — 44 exemplars
Antaeus No. 61, Autumn 1988 - Journals, Notebooks & Diaries (1988) — Col·laborador — 33 exemplars
Good Housekeeping Short Story Collection (1997) — Col·laborador — 15 exemplars
Women Writing: An Anthology (1979) — Col·laborador — 11 exemplars
Personal Choice (1977) — Col·laborador — 2 exemplars

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Ressenyes

A Book That Came Out The Year You Were Born

I could have categorized The Country Girls under "A Trilogy," and perhaps reading all three novels would have helped me appreciate this one more. Not being Irish, Catholic or a child of the '50s (much less female) prevented me from comprehending the groundbreaking nature of Edna O'Brien's story without the insights provided in the introduction (which I read after the novel and should be taken with a grain of feminist salt).

The Country Girls is the story of two young Irish girls, Caithleen and Bridget, who maintain a tenuous friendship through the death of Cait's mother and their "incarceration" in the convent they were sent to, ostensibly to be educated. During this time, fourteen-year-old Cait begins a highly romanticized affair with a much older married man, referred to as Mr. Gentleman due to her difficulty pronouncing his surname. She is ultimately expelled from the school her family cannot afford without the scholarship she earns after succumbing to the malignant influence of her purported friend. Whereupon the girls take up joint residency of a room in a lower-class boardinghouse in Dublin and their "education" continues.

Another book on all versions of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, The Country Girls reads like a train wreck in the making, with the premonition of catastrophe awaiting in the subsequent volumes.
… (més)
½
 
Marcat
skavlanj | Hi ha 30 ressenyes més | Oct 29, 2023 |
Cercando informazioni sul contesto nel quale è nato questo romanzo ho scoperto che Edna O'Brien è ancora viva. Non so perché fossi convinta del contrario e spero sia (e rimanga) un'arzilla signora di ottantacinque anni (in effetti dalle foto sembra un bel peperino).

Certo che per aver scritto e pubblicato Ragazze di campagna nell'Irlanda del 1960 non poteva che essere una tipa tosta. Il romanzo, infatti, è parecchio critico riguardo alla repressione sessuale alla quale erano costrette le donne e all'educazione impartita dalle suore – e, mi viene da aggiungere, subita dalle allieve – che la O'Brien ha sperimentato in prima persona.

Il fatto bizzarro è che mi si dice che Ragazze di campagna sia un romanzo gettonato tra gli integralisti cattolici (qui). Mah. Forse si immedesimano nella frustrazione sessuale delle protagoniste. O forse non hanno semplicemente capito di cosa parli. Non so quale delle due ipotesi sia la peggiore...

In ogni caso, Ragazze di campagna mi ha fatto riflettere anche sul fatto che non credo di aver mai letto un romanzo dove si parli bene delle suore e delle scuole da loro gestite. Evidentemente mandare i/le figl* dalle suore non è un buon investimento per la loro futura felicità: pensateci bene, genitori, o rischierete di essere sputtanati e ricordati per sempre in qualche romanzo per aver fatto questa infelice scelta educativa.

Nella speranza che nelle attuali scuole cattoliche non vigano i metodi di insegnamento dittatoriali che si leggono in Ragazze di campagna. O che voi stessi non siate genitori violenti come il padre di Caithleen, protagonista del romanzo. La pagine nelle quali Caithleen e suo padre si trovano a dover interagire sono piene di una tensione claustrofobica che trasmette tutta l'angoscia di ritrovarsi al cospetto di una persona violenta dalla quale non si può scappare, a meno di raggiungere l'indipendenza.

Molto interessante, poi, è il rapporto tra Caithleen e la sua migliore amica, Baba, molto più sfrontata e con un carattere decisamente prevaricatore. La loro amicizia, infatti, è costantemente sbilanciata a favore di Baba e, durante la lettura, mi sono chiesta più volte come mai queste due siano amiche e non sono riuscita a darmi una risposta soddisfacente. Forse sono un po' troppo lontana da quel tipo di ambiente.

In definitiva, la scrittura di Edna O'Brinen mi è piaciuta molto e sono piuttosto curiosa di sapere come continuano le avventure di Caithleen e Baba, dato che Ragazze di campagna è il primo volume di una trilogia.
… (més)
 
Marcat
lasiepedimore | Hi ha 30 ressenyes més | Sep 19, 2023 |
More of a novella, O'Brien does a tremendous job of bringing us inside the mind of a woman, Ellen, who is hurting and insecure after a divorce. In an effort to forget, Ellen takes a holiday in France, and basically behaves in a way that ends up reinforcing her sadness and depression. I loved the way this book was written. O'Brien really takes you inside Ellen's mind the entire time, and it is hard not to empathize with her feelings and situation and her deep deep loneliness. You feel like you are watching a girlfriend do all sorts of things that you know are bad for her, and you just want her say please stop doing this to yourself, but you also know she won't listen.

Unfortunately, the novel takes one misstep (in my opinion), and it's a pretty big one. Hence the four stars instead of five. But because I think the rest of the book is so exquisitely rendered, it really didn't diminish my enjoyment of the writing for long. Just a little "seriously?" came into my mind at this point. It's hard to share without spoiling.

So if you require books be uplifting in order to enjoy them, don't pick this one up. If you want to see how a masterful author can develop a character so real seeming that you want to befriend, help, and guide her, this book does that and more.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Anita_Pomerantz | Hi ha 13 ressenyes més | Mar 23, 2023 |
Ellen is a 27-year-old Irishwoman separated from her husband and living in London. When Ellen’s husband takes their seven-year-old young son — whom they share custody for — on a camping trip to Wales, Ellen is free to enjoy her own summer break from her job as a theatre critic. A week into her leave, she goes to bed with a male friend but when returns home to his live-in lover she is left frustrated and decides to book a trip to the south of France in search of sun and sex.

In France she flirts with almost every male she sees, including the man sitting beside her on the plane, but her her choices are poor and nothing works out as she would. Then something happens that reminds Ellen that her independence comes at a cost.

First published in 1965 this book was initially banned in Ireland because of its sexual content but by today's standards it is pretty tame. O'Brien writes beautifully about being on holiday and experiencing new things, and it was fascinating to read about a woman’ sexual desires and her hunger to live life to the fullest. But it was the sudden mood swing midway through that really made an impression on me. Suddenly the whole story took on a very different slant. It left me with very mixed feelings about Ellen, whilst she was in France I wanted to go up on her, shake by the shoulders and tell her not to be so stupid but whilst in the UK I wanted to give her a big hug. However, I have to say overall I found this an OK read rather than a particularly gripping one.
… (més)
 
Marcat
PilgrimJess | Hi ha 13 ressenyes més | Mar 22, 2023 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
80
També de
27
Membres
8,970
Popularitat
#2,684
Valoració
½ 3.6
Ressenyes
233
ISBN
567
Llengües
19
Preferit
18

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