 First edition | |
| Author | Edna O'Brien |
|---|---|
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
Publication date | April 16, 1970 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 223 pages |
| ISBN | 0-297-00027-6 |
A Pagan Place is a 1970 novel by Irish writer Edna O'Brien. [1] [2] The book was first published on April 16, 1970, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and follows a young girl in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1972 A Pagan Place was adapted into a stage production, [3] which received mixed reviews. [4]
A Pagan Place is narrated in second person in its entirety. As Shahriyar Mansouri argues, such a "melodic" narratorial voice, presented through the mouthpiece of second-person narrator signifies a lost sense of identity and independence for the post-independence Irish women. [5] The only occasion when the narratorial voice appropriates the first person pronoun 'I', indicating its presence and self-recognition, comes at the end of the novel, where the unnamed, young female protagonist embarks on her journey of formation.
The Sydney Morning Herald praised the book's narrative, saying that it "flows along absorbingly without a line of direct dialogue". [6]
John Barry Humphries is an Australian actor, artist, author, comedian and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer, and an accomplished landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin".
Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured or "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses or "face furniture", her favourite flower, the gladiolus ("gladdies") and her boisterous greeting: "Hello, Possums!" As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books including an autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, appeared in several films and hosted several television shows.
Josephine Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Philip Roth described her as "the most gifted woman now writing in English", while a former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, cited her as "one of the great creative writers of her generation".
John Russell Waters is an English-born Australian film, theatre and television actor, singer, guitarist, songwriter and musician best known in Australia, where he moved to in 1968. He is the son of Scottish actor Russell Waters. John Waters has been in the industry for over 50 years, and was part of the Australian children's television series Play School for 18 years.
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1966. It was published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1967.
The Butcher Boy is a 1992 novel by Patrick McCabe. Set in a small town in Ireland in the early 1960s, it tells the story of Francis "Francie" Brady, a schoolboy who retreats into a violent fantasy world as his troubled home life collapses.
The Country Girls is a trilogy by Irish author Edna O'Brien. It consists of three novels: The Country Girls (1960), The Lonely Girl (1962), and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964). The trilogy was re-released in 1986 in a single volume with a revised ending to Girls in Their Married Bliss and addition of an epilogue. The Country Girls, both the trilogy and the novel, is often credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland following World War II and was adapted into a 1983 film. All three novels were banned by the Irish censorship board and faced significant public disdain in Ireland. O'Brien won the Kingsley Amis Award in 1962 for The Country Girls.
Leah Maree Purcell is an Indigenous Australian actress, director and writer. She is a Helpmann Award and AACTA Award winner.
Diana McLean is an Australian stage and television actress.
Peter Schmidt, known as Pete Smith, was an American producer and narrator of "short subject" films.
Cry of Morning is a novel by the English-born author, Brian Cleeve. It deals with the economic and cultural transformation that overtook Ireland during the 1960s. It marked a significant shift away from the murder mysteries and spy thrillers for which Cleeve had previously been noted.
Ernest Gébler, sometimes credited as Ernie Gebler, was an Irish writer of Czech origin. He was a member of Aosdána.
Alfred Dampier was an English-born actor-manager and playwright, active in Australia.
Trooper O'Brien is a 1928 Australian silent film from the team of John and Agnes Gavin. It was a melodrama set during the "Ned Kelly era" about an orphaned girl raised by a policeman in the bush. It is one of the rare early Australian films that still exist in its entirety.
Seven Little Australians is a 1939 Australian film directed by Arthur Greville Collins and starring Charles McCallum. It is an adaptation of Ethel Turner's 1894 novel in a contemporary setting.
August Is a Wicked Month is the fourth novel by Edna O'Brien. It was published in 1965.
Country Girl is the memoir of Edna O'Brien. Faber and Faber published it in 2012. The title refers to her debut novel The Country Girls, which was banned, burned and denounced upon publication.
House of Splendid Isolation is a 1994 novel by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien. The novel depicts the relations of an Irish Republican Army terrorist and his hostage, an elderly woman. The novel blends an attempt at thriller, with O'Brien's deep exploration of Irish society. It is based on the life of Dominic McGlinchy, whom O'Brien interviewed while incarcerated in Portlaoise Prison.
A Dutiful Daughter (1971) is a novel by Australian writer Thomas Keneally.
Night is a 1972 novel by Irish author Edna O'Brien. The novel is narrated by Mary Hooligan, while she experiences a bout of sleeplessness. Mary has been compared to Molly Bloom.