5.0
The Midnight Court
ByPublisher Description
As a teacher and translator of Irish verse, Frank O'Connor brought to the world's attention many fine poems from his native land, few as enduring—and none as controversial—as Brian Merriman's
.
An eighteenth-century masterpiece widely recognized as the greatest comic poem in Irish literature,
is a hilarious and insightful take on the battle of the sexes. In the court of a fairy queen, the men and women of Ireland air their grievances with one another. The competing lists of complaints are as long as they are uproarious, and when the queen rules in favor of the women, all young Irish bachelors are doomed to a terrible fate: marriage.
has now taken its rightful place in the Irish literary canon, but when O'Connor's English translation was first published in 1945, the Irish government banned it as obscene. In a delicious irony that might have been lifted from one of O'Connor's short stories, the Gaelic original met with no censure. Here, as it first appeared, is Frank O'Connor's faithful, funny, and eloquent translation of one of the most important works in Irish literature.
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5.0
About Brian Merriman
Frank O'Connor (1903–1966) was born in Cork, Ireland, and fought for the Irish Republican Army in the war for independence. He was a prolific author of short stories, plays, literary criticism, memoir, and poetry, and the managing director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to being a renowned writer whom W. B. Yeats famously described as "doing for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia," O'Connor was also a highly regarded teacher and translator of Irish literature. The world's richest prize for short fiction is named in his honor.
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor (1903–1966) was born in Cork, Ireland, and fought for the Irish Republican Army in the war for independence. He was a prolific author of short stories, plays, literary criticism, memoir, and poetry, and the managing director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to being a renowned writer whom W. B. Yeats famously described as “doing for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia,” O’Connor was also a highly regarded teacher and translator of Irish literature. The world’s richest prize for short fiction is named in his honor.
Other books by Frank O'Connor
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