Edna O'Brien

Standard Name: O'Brien, Edna
Birth Name: Edna O'Brien
Throughout her career, contemporary Irish writer EOB has published novels, short stories, drama, screen and teleplays, poetry, travel writing, and children's books. Her imaginative writing, in which she experiments with linguistic and narrative conventions, almost always presents a woman's perspective. She often deals with such themes as personal and national identity, love affairs, exile, memory, and death. She is not a writer who caters to her readers' comfort, but concentrates steadily on the darker sides of life.
Colour photograph of Edna O'Brien speaking at the Hay-on-Wye Festival in 2016. She is seated on a wooden chair against a black backdrop with projected blue glowing trees. On a table in front of her are several books (including her recent "The Little Red Chairs"), a jug of water, drinking glasses, and a cloth of some kind. Her auburn hair is short and perkily styled; she wears berry-pink lipstick, a white chunky necklace, a black shirt and black sparkly cardigan, and holds her black-rimmed reading glas
Black-and-white photo of Edna O'brien, December 1970. Seated, she is wearing an eclectic coat with different textual patterns and black fur sleeves and collar. Her hair is back in a relaxed bouffant updo.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Reception Iris Murdoch
This book was runner-up for the Booker Prize, by a whisker and a casting vote. The winner was The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell . The judges were Edna O'Brien and Mary McCarthy
Textual Features Kate O'Brien
Edna O'Brien is quoted on the cover of the Virago edition referring to the perfect capture of the mood and landscape of a corner of Ireland.
O’Brien, Kate. The Last of Summer. Virago.
cover
But both mood and landscape are deeply coloured...
Occupation Bernice Rubens
As a writer she was an assiduous attender of literary festivals, a virtuoso reader of her own and other authors' work.
Kennedy, Maev. “Booker winner Bernice Rubens dies”. Guardian Unlimited.
She tells a story from her whoring or book-promotion days of sitting beside Edna O'Brien

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

O’Brien, Edna. Returning. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.
O’Brien, Edna. Saints and Sinners. Faber and Faber, 2011.
O’Brien, Edna. Seven Novels. Collins, 1978.
O’Brien, Edna, editor. Some Irish Loving. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979.
O’Brien, Edna. The Country Girls. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960.
O’Brien, Edna. The High Road. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
O’Brien, Edna. The Little Red Chairs. Faber and Faber, 2015.
O’Brien, Edna. The Little Red Chairs. Faber and Faber, 2016.
O’Brien, Edna. The Lonely Girl. J. Cape, 1962.
O’Brien, Edna. The Love Object. J. Cape, 1968.
O’Brien, Edna. The Love Object: Selected Stories. Faber and Faber, 2013.
O’Brien, Edna. “The ogre of betrayal”. The Guardian, pp. Review 10 - 11.
O’Brien, Edna. Time and Tide. Viking, 1992.
O’Brien, Edna, and Richard Fitzgerald. Vanishing Ireland. J. Cape, 1986.
O’Brien, Edna. Virginia. Hogarth Press, 1981.
O’Brien, Edna. Wild Decembers. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
O’Brien, Edna. Wild Decembers. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999.
O’Brien, Edna. “Writers’ Rooms”. theguardian.com.
O’Brien, Edna. “Writers’ rooms”. The Guardian, p. Review 3.
O’Brien, Edna. Zee & Co. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971.