Frank O'Connor was a most painstaking writer, sometimes taking up to ten years to revise and polish a story. This book attempts to examine the process and tries to reveal something about O'Connor's perception of his craft and the environment from which his art emerged.

The definitive collection from an Irish literary icon, “one of the masters of the short story” (Newsweek). In the words of W. B. Yeats, Frank O’Connor “did for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia.” Anne Tyler, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, described his tales as “encapsulated universes.” This indispensable volume contains the best of his short fiction, from “Guests of the Nation” (adapted into an Obie Award–winning play) to “The Mad Lomasneys” to “First Confession” to “My Oedipus Complex.” Dublin schoolteacher Ned Keating waves good-bye to a charming girl and to any thoughts of returning to his village home in the lyrical and melancholy “Uprooted.” A boy on an important mission is waylaid by a green-eyed temptress and seeks forgiveness in his mother’s loving arms in “The Man of the House,” a tale that draws on O’Connor’s own difficult childhood. A series of awkward encounters and humorous misunderstandings perfectly encapsulates the complicated legacy of Irish immigration in “Ghosts,” the bittersweet account of an American family’s pilgrimage to the land of their forefathers. In these and dozens of other stories, O’Connor accomplishes the miraculous, laying bare entire lives and histories in the space of a few pages. As a writer, critic, and teacher, O’Connor elevated the short story to astonishing new heights. This career-spanning anthology, epic in scope yet brimming with small moments and intimate details, is a true pleasure to read from first page to last.

In this entertaining and enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane Austen and James Joyce. Looking at ideas such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Magic Realism and Symbolism, and illustrating each topic with a passage taken from a classic or modern novel, David Lodge makes the richness and variety of British and American fiction accessible to the general reader. He provides essential reading for students, aspiring writers and anyone who wants to understand how fiction works.

Introduction by Russell Banks. The legendary book about writing by the legendary writer is back! Frank O’Connor was one of the twentieth century’s greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland’s greatest authors ever. Now, O’Connor’s influential and sought-after book on the short story is back. The Lonely Voice offers a master class with the master. With his sharp wit and straightforward prose, O’Connor not only discusses the techniques and challenges of a form in which "a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes," but he also delves into a passionate consideration of his favorite writers and their greatest works, including Chekhov, Hemingway, Kipling, Joyce, and others.

Frank O'Connor's enormous literary success is all the more remarkable given that he was born and brought up in the slums of Cork, his childhood marked by poverty and illness. In 1928, he set off for the excitement of Dublin, where he became great friends with W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and George Russell. After the success of his first book, Guests of a Nation, O'Connor was unstoppable. As well as writing plays, short stories, criticism, and poetry, he became the director of the legendary Abbey Theatre. He continued to write, even when illness forced him to give up all else. Much of what he wrote, however, was banned due to Irish censorship laws, and so he decided to broaden his horizons in America. There, his success was huge but short-lived—illness forced his return to Ireland for good, where he died in 1966. Today, more than three decades after his death, Frank O'Connor's works are as popular as ever. Jim McKeon's thoughtful portrait will surely be welcomed by all admirers.

Jackie faces his first confession with great trepidation following a warning lecture from his obnoxious, older sister.

The stories collected here demonstrates the richness of the short story tradition in Ireland from the end of the last century to the period following the Second World War. The authors represented are: George Moore, Somerville and Ross, Daniel Corkery, Jame Stephens, Liam O'Flaherty, L.A.G. Strong, Sean O'Faoláin, Frank O'Connor, Eric Cross, Michael McLaverty, Bryan MacMahon, Mary Lavin, James Plunkett, James Joyce, and Elizabeth Bowen. `this is as good a collection of stories as you could find anywhere and fully deserves its new description "classic".' Books and Bookmen

Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) is known primarily for his short stories, and fine ones they are. There are seventeen of them in this Reader, and the best of them, in the words of Richard Ellmann "stir those facial muscles which, we are told, are the same for both laughing and weeping." Except for the masterpiece, "Guests of the Nation," the stories included here have been out of print for twenty years, and one story had been previously unpublished. But this is a Reader and it celebrates the creative diversity of one of this century's finest writers. Here one can also sample O'Connor's skillful translations of Irish poetry, including "The Lament for Art O'Leary." There are a number of self-portraits, including "Meet Frank O'Connor" and "Writing a Story-One Man's Way." The final section includes a number of O'Connor's finest essays, from pieces on Yeats, Joyce, and Mozart, to ones on English and Irish pubs and one simply titled, "Ireland": "No one who does not love the sense of the past should ever come near us; nobody who does, whatever our faults may be, should give us the hard word."

The most generous one-volume collection ever published of short stories, autobiographical writings,poetry, and essays by the writer Yeats called “Ireland’s Chekhov.” Selected and arranged thematically by Julian Barnes, the rich mix of writings in The Best of Frank O’Connor starts off with his most famous short story, “Guests of the Nation,” set during the Irish War of Independence; chronicles his childhood with an alcoholic father and protective mother; and traces his literary influences in brilliant essays on Joyce and Yeats. O’Connor’s wonderfully polyphonic tales of family, friendship, and rivalry are set beside those that bring to life forgotten souls on the fringes of society. O’Connor’s writings about Ireland vividly evoke the land he called home, while other stories probe the hardships and rewards of Irish emigration. Finally, we see O’Connor grappling, in both fiction and memoir, with the largest questions of religion and belief. The Best of Frank O’Connor is a literary monument to a truly great writer.

An all-new digital single—part of the New York Times bestselling series based on the blockbuster Xbox® games! The military-grade artificial intelligence known as Iona has only one week to live. After that, the UNSC will legally terminate her seven-year existence in order to stave off the threat of the data corruption phenomenon known as “rampancy,” a condition that will eventually take hold of her functionality and persona, endangering all those around her. In a last-ditch effort to save herself, Iona has successfully launched an unprecedented legal appeal against her own death sentence—a case being watched very closely at not only the highest levels of human government, but by others with a very different agenda…