The painting featured on the cover of this book—“Flann O’Brien I” (50 x 40 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2011)—was first shown as part of a two-man exhibition of artwork by Eddie O’Kane and his son David O’Kane. The exhibition was entitled “I have looked everywhere that can be looked,” which was held at Cavanacor Gallery in 2011 to commemorate the centenary of Brian O’Nolan’s birth. The painting shows a view of the Bowling Green in Strabane from the window of the house where O’Nolan was born. The row of houses opposite is taken from a photograph from the early 1900s; the view has remained relatively unchanged up to the present day. A shadowy Flann O’Brien is included looking towards the window. To the right of the house was the town’s Police Station (not shown).
FLANN O’BRIEN, whose real name was Brian O’Nolan, also wrote under the pen name of Myles na Gopaleen. He was born in 1911 in County Tyrone. A resident of Dublin, he graduated from University College after a brilliant career as a student (editing a magazine called Blather) and joined the Civil Service, in which he eventually attained a senior position. He wrote throughout his life, which ended in Dublin on April 1, 1966. His other novels include The Dalkey Archive, The Third Policeman, The Hard Life, and The Poor Mouth, all available from Dalkey Archive Press. Also available are three volumes of his newspaper columns, as well as his Plays and Teleplays.
MICHAL AJVAZ, The Golden Age.
The Other City.
PIERRE ALBERT-BIROT, Grabinoulor.
YUZ ALESHKOVSKY, Kangaroo.
FELIPE ALFAU, Chromos.
Locos.
IVAN NGELO, The Celebration.
The Tower of Glass.
ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES, Knowledge of Hell.
The Splendor of Portugal.
ALAIN ARIAS-MISSON, Theatre of Incest.
JOHN ASHBERY AND JAMES SCHUYLER, A Nest of Ninnies.
ROBERT ASHLEY, Perfect Lives.
GABRIELA AVIGUR-ROTEM, Heatwave and Crazy Birds.
DJUNA BARNES, Ladies Almanack.
Ryder.
JOHN BARTH, LETTERS.
Sabbatical.
DONALD BARTHELME, The King.
Paradise.
SVETISLAV BASARA, Chinese Letter.
MIQUEL BAUÇÀ, The Siege in the Room.
RENÉ BELLETTO, Dying.
MAREK BIECZYK, Transparency.
ANDREI BITOV, Pushkin House.
ANDREJ BLATNIK, You Do Understand.
LOUIS PAUL BOON, Chapel Road.
My Little War.
Summer in Termuren.
ROGER BOYLAN, Killoyle.
IGNÁCIO DE LOYOLA BRANDÃO, Anonymous Celebrity.
Zero.
BONNIE BREMSER, Troia: Mexican Memoirs.
CHRISTINE BROOKE-ROSE, Amalgamemnon.
BRIGID BROPHY, In Transit.
GERALD L. BRUNS, Modern Poetry and the Idea of Language.
GABRIELLE BURTON, Heartbreak Hotel.
MICHEL BUTOR, Degrees.
Mobile.
G. CABRERA INFANTE, Infante’s Inferno.
Three Trapped Tigers.
JULIETA CAMPOS,
The Fear of Losing Eurydice.
ANNE CARSON, Eros the Bittersweet.
ORLY CASTEL-BLOOM, Dolly City.
LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE, Castle to Castle.
Conversations with Professor Y.
London Bridge.
Normance.
North.
Rigadoon.
MARIE CHAIX, The Laurels of Lake Constance.
HUGO CHARTERIS, The Tide Is Right.
ERIC CHEVILLARD, Demolishing Nisard.
MARC CHOLODENKO, Mordechai Schamz.
JOSHUA COHEN, Witz.
EMILY HOLMES COLEMAN, The Shutter of Snow.
ROBERT COOVER, A Night at the Movies.
STANLEY CRAWFORD, Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine.
Some Instructions to My Wife.
RENÉ CREVEL, Putting My Foot in It.
RALPH CUSACK, Cadenza.
NICHOLAS DELBANCO, The Count of Concord.
Sherbrookes.
NIGEL DENNIS, Cards of Identity.
PETER DIMOCK, A Short Rhetoric for Leaving the Family.
ARIEL DORFMAN, Konfidenz.
COLEMAN DOWELL, Island People.
Too Much Flesh and Jabez.
ARKADII DRAGOMOSHCHENKO, Dust.
RIKKI DUCORNET, The Complete Butcher’s Tales.
The Fountains of Neptune.
The Jade Cabinet.
Phosphor in Dreamland.
WILLIAM EASTLAKE, The Bamboo Bed.
Castle Keep.
Lyric of the Circle Heart.
JEAN ECHENOZ, Chopin’s Move.
STANLEY ELKIN, A Bad Man.
Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers.
The Dick Gibson Show.
The Franchiser.
The Living End.
Mrs. Ted Bliss.
FRANÇOIS EMMANUEL, Invitation to a Voyage.
SALVADOR ESPRIU, Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth.
LESLIE A. FIEDLER, Love and Death in the American Novel.
JUAN FILLOY, Op Oloop.
ANDY FITCH, Pop Poetics.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, Bouvard and Pécuchet.
KASS FLEISHER, Talking out of School.
FORD MADOX FORD,
The March of Literature.
JON FOSSE, Aliss at the Fire.
Melancholy.
MAX FRISCH, I’m Not Stiller.
Man in the Holocene.
CARLOS FUENTES, Christopher Unborn.
Distant Relations.
Terra Nostra.
Where the Air Is Clear.
TAKEHIKO FUKUNAGA, Flowers of Grass.
WILLIAM GADDIS, J R.
The Recognitions.
JANICE GALLOWAY, Foreign Parts.
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing.
WILLIAM H. GASS, Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas.
Finding a Form.
A Temple of Texts.
The Tunnel.
Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife.
GÉRARD GAVARRY, Hoppla! 1 2 3.
ETIENNE GILSON,
The Arts of the Beautiful.
Forms and Substances in the Arts.
C.S. GISCOMBE, Giscome Road.
Here.
DOUGLAS GLOVER, Bad News of the Heart.
WITOLD GOMBROWICZ, A Kind of Testament.
PAULO EMÍLIO SALES GOMES, P’s Three Women.
GEORGI GOSPODINOV, Natural Novel.
JUAN GOYTISOLO, Count Julian.
Juan the Landless.
Makbara.
Marks of Identity.
HENRY GREEN, Back.
Blindness.
Concluding.
Doting.
Nothing.
JACK GREEN, Fire the Bastards!
JIÍ GRUŠA, The Questionnaire.
MELA HARTWIG, Am I a Redundant Human Being?
JOHN HAWKES, The Passion Artist.
Whistlejacket.
ELIZABETH HEIGHWAY, ED., Contemporary
Georgian Fiction.
ALEKSANDAR HEMON, ED.,
Best European Fiction.
AIDAN HIGGINS, Balcony of Europe.
Blind Man’s Bluff
Bornholm Night-Ferry.
Flotsam and Jetsam.
Langrishe, Go Down.
Scenes from a Receding Past.
KEIZO HINO, Isle of Dreams.
KAZUSHI HOSAKA, Plainsong.
ALDOUS HUXLEY, Antic Hay.
Crome Yellow.
Point Counter Point.
Those Barren Leaves.
Time Must Have a Stop.
NAOYUKI II, The Shadow of a Blue Cat.
GERT JONKE, The Distant Sound.
Geometric Regional Novel.
Homage to Czerny.
The System of Vienna.
JACQUES JOUET, Mountain R.
Savage.
Upstaged.
MIEKO KANAI, The Word Book.
YORAM KANIUK, Life on Sandpaper.<
br />
HUGH KENNER, Flaubert.
Joyce and Beckett: The Stoic Comedians.
Joyce’s Voices.
DANILO KIŠ, The Attic.
Garden, Ashes.
The Lute and the Scars
Psalm 44.
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich.
ANITA KONKKA, A Fool’s Paradise.
GEORGE KONRÁD, The City Builder.
TADEUSZ KONWICKI, A Minor Apocalypse.
The Polish Complex.
MENIS KOUMANDAREAS, Koula.
ELAINE KRAF, The Princess of 72nd Street.
JIM KRUSOE, Iceland.
AYE KULIN, Farewell: A Mansion in Occupied Istanbul.
EMILIO LASCANO TEGUI, On Elegance While Sleeping.
ERIC LAURRENT, Do Not Touch.
VIOLETTE LEDUC, La Bâtarde.
EDOUARD LEVÉ, Autoportrait.
Suicide.
MARIO LEVI, Istanbul Was a Fairy Tale.
DEBORAH LEVY, Billy and Girl.
JOSÉ LEZAMA LIMA, Paradiso.
ROSA LIKSOM, Dark Paradise.
OSMAN LINS, Avalovara.
The Queen of the Prisons of Greece.
ALF MAC LOCHLAINN,
The Corpus in the Library.
Out of Focus.
RON LOEWINSOHN, Magnetic Field(s).
MINA LOY, Stories and Essays of Mina Loy.
D. KEITH MANO, Take Five.
MICHELINE AHARONIAN MARCOM,
The Mirror in the Well.
BEN MARCUS, The Age of Wire and String.
WALLACE MARKFIELD, Teitlebaum’s Window.
To an Early Grave.
DAVID MARKSON, Reader’s Block.
Wittgenstein’s Mistress.
CAROLE MASO, AVA.
LADISLAV MATEJKA AND KRYSTYNA
POMORSKA, EDS.,
Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views.
HARRY MATHEWS, Cigarettes.
The Conversions.
The Human Country: New and Collected Stories.
The Journalist.
My Life in CIA.
Singular Pleasures.
The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium.
Tlooth.
JOSEPH MCELROY,
Night Soul and Other Stories.
ABDELWAHAB MEDDEB, Talismano.
GERHARD MEIER, Isle of the Dead.
HERMAN MELVILLE, The Confidence-Man.
AMANDA MICHALOPOULOU, I’d Like.
STEVEN MILLHAUSER, The Barnum Museum.
In the Penny Arcade.
RALPH J. MILLS, JR., Essays on Poetry.
MOMUS, The Book of Jokes.
CHRISTINE MONTALBETTI, The Origin of Man.
Western.
OLIVE MOORE, Spleen.
NICHOLAS MOSLEY, Accident.
Assassins.
Catastrophe Practice.
Experience and Religion.
A Garden of Trees.
Hopeful Monsters.
Imago Bird.
Impossible Object.
Inventing God.
Judith.
Look at the Dark.
Natalie Natalia.
Serpent.
Time at War.
WARREN MOTTE,
Fables of the Novel: French Fiction since 1990.
Fiction Now: The French Novel in the 21st Century.
Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature.
GERALD MURNANE, Barley Patch.
Inland.
YVES NAVARRE, Our Share of Time.
Sweet Tooth.
DOROTHY NELSON, In Night’s City.
Tar and Feathers.
ESHKOL NEVO, Homesick.
WILFRIDO D. NOLLEDO, But for the Lovers.
FLANN O’BRIEN, At Swim-Two-Birds.
The Best of Myles.
The Dalkey Archive.
The Hard Life.
The Poor Mouth.
The Third Policeman.
CLAUDE OLLIER, The Mise-en-Scène.
Wert and the Life Without End.
GIOVANNI ORELLI, Walaschek’s Dream.
PATRIK OUEDNÍK, Europeana.
The Opportune Moment, 1855.
BORIS PAHOR, Necropolis.
FERNANDO DEL PASO, News from the Empire.
Palinuro of Mexico.
ROBERT PINGET, The Inquisitory.
Mahu or The Material.
Trio.
MANUEL PUIG, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth.
The Buenos Aires Affair.
Heartbreak Tango.
RAYMOND QUENEAU, The Last Days.
Odile.
Pierrot Mon Ami.
Saint Glinglin.
ANN QUIN, Berg.
Passages.
Three.
Tripticks.
ISHMAEL REED, The Free-Lance Pallbearers.
The Last Days of Louisiana Red.
Ishmael Reed: The Plays.
Juice!
Reckless Eyeballing.
The Terrible Threes.
The Terrible Twos.
Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down.
JASIA REICHARDT, 15 Journeys Warsaw to London.
NOËLLE REVAZ, With the Animals.
JOÃO UBALDO RIBEIRO, House of the Fortunate Buddhas.
JEAN RICARDOU, Place Names.
RAINER MARIA RILKE, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
JULIÁN RÍOS, The House of Ulysses.
Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel.
Poundemonium.
Procession of Shadows.
AUGUSTO ROA BASTOS, I the Supreme.
DANIËL ROBBERECHTS, Arriving in Avignon.
JEAN ROLIN, The Explosion of the Radiator Hose.
OLIVIER ROLIN, Hotel Crystal.
ALIX CLEO ROUBAUD, Alix’s Journal.
JACQUES ROUBAUD, The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, Than the Human Heart.
The Great Fire of London.
Hortense in Exile.
Hortense Is Abducted.
The Loop.
Mathematics:
The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis.
The Princess Hoppy.
Some Thing Black.
RAYMOND ROUSSEL, Impressions of Africa.
VEDRANA RUDAN, Night.
STIG SÆTERBAKKEN, Siamese.
Self Control.
LYDIE SALVAYRE, The Company of Ghosts.
The Lecture.
The Power of Flies.
LUIS RAFAEL SÁNCHEZ, Macho Camacho’s Beat.
SEVERO SARDUY, Cobra & Maitreya.
NATHALIE SARRAUTE,
Do You Hear Them?
Martereau.
The Planetarium.
ARNO SCHMIDT, Collected Novellas.
Collected Stories.
Nobodaddy’s Children.
Two Novels.
ASAF SCHURR, Motti.
GAIL SCOTT, My Paris.
DAMION SEARLS, What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going.
JUNE AKERS SEESE,
Is This What Other Women Feel Too?
What Waiting Really Means.
BERNARD SHARE, Inish.
Transit.
VIKTOR SHKLOVSKY, Bowstring.
Knight’s Move.
A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs 1917–1922.
Energy of Delusion: A Book on Plot.
Literature and Cinematography.
Theory of Prose.
Third Factory.
Zoo, or Letters Not about Love.
PIERRE SINIAC, The Collaborators.
KJERSTI A. SKOMSVOLD, The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am.
JOSEF ŠKVORECKÝ, The Engineer of Human Souls.
GILBERT SORRENTINO,
Aberration of Starlight.
Blue Pastoral.
Crystal Vision.
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things.
Mulligan Stew.
Pack of Lies.
Red the Fiend.
The Sky Changes.
Something Said.
Splendide-Hôtel.
Steelwork.
Under the Shadow.
W. M. SPACKMAN, The Complete Fiction.
ANDRZEJ STASIUK, Dukla.
Fado.
GERTRUDE STEIN, The Making of Americans.
A Novel of Thank You.
LARS SVENDSEN, A Philosophy of Evil.
PIOTR SZEWC, Annihilation.
GONÇALO M. TAVARES, Jerusalem.
Joseph Walser’s Machine.
Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique.
LUCIAN DAN TEODOROVICI, Our Circus Presents . . .
NIKANOR TERATOLOGEN, Assisted Living.
STEFAN THEMERSON, Hobson’s Island.
The Mystery of the Sardine.
Tom Harris.
TAEKO TOMIOKA, Building Waves.
JOHN TOOMEY, Sleepwalker.
JEAN-PHILIPPE TOUSSAINT, The Bathroom.
Camera.
Monsieur.
Reticence.
Running Away.
Self-Portrait Abroad.
Television.
The Truth about Marie.
DUMITRU TSEPENEAG, Hotel Europa.
The Necessary Marriage.
Pigeon Post.
Vain Art of the Fugue.
ESTHER TUSQUETS, Stranded.
DUBRAVKA UGRESIC, Lend Me Your Character.
Thank You for Not Reading.
TOR ULVEN, Replacement.
MATI UNT, Brecht at Night.
Diary of a Blood Donor.
Things in the Night.
ÁLVARO URIBE AND OLIVIA SEARS, EDS.,
Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction.
ELOY URROZ, Friction.
The Obstacles.
LUISA VALENZUELA, Dark Desires and the Others.
He Who Searches.
PAUL VERHAEGHEN, Omega Minor.
AGLAJA VETERANYI, Why the Child Is Cooking in the Polenta.
BORIS VIAN, Heartsnatcher.
LLORENÇ VILLALONGA, The Dolls’ Room.
TOOMAS VINT, An Unending Landscape.
ORNELA VORPSI, The Country Where No One Ever Dies.
AUSTRYN WAINHOUSE, Hedyphagetica.
CURTIS WHITE, America’s Magic Mountain.
The Idea of Home.
Memories of My Father Watching TV.
Requiem.
DIANE WILLIAMS, Excitability: Selected Stories.
Romancer Erector.
DOUGLAS WOOLF, Wall to Wall.
Ya! & John-Juan.
JAY WRIGHT, Polynomials and Pollen.
The Presentable Art of Reading Absence.
PHILIP WYLIE, Generation of Vipers.
MARGUERITE YOUNG, Angel in the Forest.
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling.
REYOUNG, Unbabbling.
VLADO ABOT, The Succubus.
ZORAN IVKOVI, Hidden Camera.
LOUIS ZUKOFSKY, Collected Fiction.
VITOMIL ZUPAN, Minuet for Guitar.
SCOTT ZWIREN, God Head.
Copyright © 2013 by the Estate of Brian O’Nolan Introduction and editorial matter © 2013 by Neil Murphy and Keith Hopper Translations and translator’s notes © 2013 by Jack Fennell
Short Fiction of Flann O'Brien Page 16