The Best of Frank O'connor

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 inThe Best of Frank O'Connorstarts 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'Connoris a literary monument to a truly great writer.

Acknowledgment
Introduction
Select Bibliography
Chronology
About the Editor

1. WAR
Preface
Guests of the Nation
Attack
Jumbo’s Wife
September Dawn
Machine-Gun Corps in Action
Laughter
Soirée Chez une Belle Jeune Fille
From An Only Child — The Fight for Freedom
From The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution
From My Father’s Son — A Case of Hypnotism

2. CHILDHOOD
Preface
My Oedipus Complex
From An Only Child — Mother
The Genius
First Confession
From Writing a Story — One Man’s Way
The Study of History
From An Only Child — A Love of Heights
The Man of the World
From An Only Child — The Bandsmen
The Cornet Player Who Betrayed Ireland

3. WRITERS
Preface
Introduction to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
From James Joyce: A Post-Mortem
From My Father’s Son — George Russell and W. B. Yeats
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — Yeats
Centenary Address at the Graveside of W. B. Yeats
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — The Tailor and Anstey

4. LONELY VOICES
Preface
The Procession of Life
The Majesty of the Law
After Fourteen Years
May Night
There is a Lone House
Uprooted
The Bridal Night
A Bachelor’s Story
Lonely Rock

5. IRELAND
Preface
A Learned Mistress
Advice to Lovers
I am Stretched on Your Grave
A Word of Warning
A Grey Eye Weeping
From My Father’s Son — Yeats as Editor
Kilcash
Hope
From Irish Miles — Father and Son
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught —
—Cork and Mental Age of Cities
—Cork
—Sligo
From The Backward Look
From Holiday Magazine

6. BETTER QUARRELLING
Preface
From My Father’s Son — First Fiction
From The Saint and Mary Kate
The Luceys
Peasants
Fish for Friday
Old-Age Pensioners
A Thing of Nothing
News for the Church
The Mad Lomasneys
In the Train

7. ABROAD
Preface
The Babes in the Wood
The Paragon
Darcy in the Land of Youth
The American Wife
A Story by Maupassant
The Conversion
The Late Henry Conran
Michael’s Wife
From My Father’s Son — The American Liner

8. LAST THINGS
Preface
From Leinster, Munster and Connaught — Monastery
Song without Words
‘The Star that Bids the Shepherd Fold’
The Frying-Pan
This Mortal Coil
The Wreath
From An Only Child — Grandmother
The Long Road to Ummera
From My Father’s Son — Tim Trayner
The Mass Island