![]() First edition cover, showing Baba (left) and Cait (right) | |
Author | Edna O'Brien |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Country Girls trilogy |
Genre | Bildungsroman, feminist literature |
Set in | Western Ireland and Dublin, late 1950s |
Published | 1960 Hutchinson |
Publication place | Ireland |
Media type | Hardcover 8vo |
Pages | 223 |
ISBN | 0752881167 |
OCLC | 3365816 |
823.914 | |
LC Class | A439530 |
Followed by | The Lonely Girl |
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. [1]
Caithleen "Cait/Kate" Brady and Bridget "Baba" Brennan are two young Irish country girls who have spent their childhood together. As they leave the safety of their convent school in search of life and love in the big city, they struggle to maintain their somewhat tumultuous relationship. Cait, dreamy and romantic, yearns for true love, while Baba just wants to experience the life of a single girl. Although they set out to conquer the world together, as their lives take unexpected turns, Cait and Baba must ultimately learn to find their own way.
The novel was filmed in 1983 directed by Desmond Davis. It had a budget of £770,000. [2]
In the Lonely Girl, Caithleen (Cait/Kate) and Bridget (Baba) move to Dublin. The novel tells the story of Kate's romance with a sophisticated older man. [3] Eventually, Kate becomes unhappy as Eugene does not share her Catholic religious beliefs, his friends do not regard Kate seriously, and he continues to correspond with his estranged wife, for whom he still has some feelings. Kate finally leaves Eugene and returns to Baba, who is packing to move to London and invites Kate to come along. Kate hopes that Eugene will come after her and ask her to return to him, but instead he sends word through Baba that their breakup is probably for the best. Sadly, Kate departs for London with Baba, where she gets over her heartbreak and meets "different people, different men".
Girl with Green Eyes is a 1964 British drama film that Edna O'Brien adapted from her own novel The Lonely Girl.
The third and final book of the trilogy, Girls in Their Married Bliss , begins in London several years after the end of The Lonely Girl. It marks a significant shift in style from the first two books, as it is now narrated in part by Baba in the first person, while Kate's sections are narrated in the third person.
The Irish censorship board banned The Country Girls upon its publication, adding it to a list of over 1,600 books banned in Ireland under the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929. [4] [5]
The public response in Ireland was largely negative as a result of the sexual imagery and national critique throughout the trilogy. Religious and political figures took particular offence. Archbishop McQuaid and then Minister for Justice, Charlie Haughey decided that "the book was filth and should not be allowed inside any decent home." [6] The trilogy was also subject to multiple public book burnings, including one in O'Brien's hometown of Tuamgraney. [7]
The Irish response to the trilogy, and the trilogy's international success despite this reaction, are frequently cited as key moments in the history of female writers in Ireland. According to Irish novelist Anne Enright, "O'Brien is the great, the only, survivor of forces that silenced and destroyed who knows how many other Irish women writers, and her contradictions – her evasions even – must be regarded as salutary." [8]
Writing in The Observer in 1960, Kingsley Amis said that The Country Girls deserved his "personal first-novel prize of the year". This comment was frequently interpreted as referring to a formal "Kingsley Amis Award", including by O'Brien's publishers, but no such literary prize exists. [9] [10] On 5 November 2019, BBC News included The Country Girls on its list of the 100 most influential novels. [11]
The novel is an exploration of the trials and tribulations of two friends set against the backdrop of 1950s Ireland, showing the influence of James Joyce in the humane attention to detail and thought and the rather lyrical prose of the narrator Cait.
The ending, wherein Cait is deceived by Mr Gentleman, can be considered as a call by O'Brien for a reconsideration of Catholic values in Irish society. O'Brien helped to launch a new generation of Irish writers more focused on the demands and values of society, such as Enright, Nuala O'Faolain and Colm Tóibín.
Josephine Edna O'Brien was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet, and short-story writer.
Events from the year 1995 in Ireland.
Events in the year 1960 in Ireland.
Events from the year 1936 in Ireland.
Events from the year 1932 in Ireland.
In Ireland, the state retains laws that allow for censorship, including specific laws covering films, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, as well as terrorism and pornography, among others. In the early years of the state, censorship was more widely enforced, particularly in areas that were perceived to be in contradiction of Catholic dogma, including abortion, sexuality and homosexuality. The church had banned many books and theories for centuries, listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Kate O'Brien was an Irish novelist and playwright.
Clare Boylan was an Irish author, journalist and critic for newspapers, magazines and many international broadcast media.
The Censorship of Publications Board is a formally independent but government-appointed board established by the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929 to examine books and periodicals that are for sale in the Republic of Ireland. It is governed by the Censorship of Publications Acts of 1929, 1946 and 1967. The Board has the authority to prohibit any book or periodical that they find to be obscene. This makes it illegal to buy, sell or distribute that publication in the Republic of Ireland. The Board prohibited a large number of publications in the past, including books by respected authors. However, since the 1990s it has not prohibited publications very often.
Helena Concannon was an Irish historian, writer, language scholar and Fianna Fáil politician.
Girl with Green Eyes is a 1964 British drama film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave and Julian Glover. Adapted by Edna O'Brien from her novel The Lonely Girl, the film tells the story of a young, naive country girl's grooming by a sophisticated older man. As the film is in black and white the green eyes are never seen.
Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book. Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority". Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community members who react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations. Books have been censored by authoritarian dictatorships to silence dissent, such as the People's Republic of China, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Books are most often censored for age appropriateness, offensive language, sexual content, amongst other reasons. Similarly, religions may issue lists of banned books, such as the historical example of the Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum and bans of such books as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses by Ayatollah Khomeini, which do not always carry legal force. Censorship can be enacted at the national or subnational level as well, and can carry legal penalties. In many cases, the authors of these books could face harsh sentences, exile from the country, or even execution.
Book censorship was carried out in several instances in Ireland between 1929 and 1998, with all remaining bans from that period having expired by 2010. However, the laws remained on the statute books and a book was banned again in 2016. Censorship was enacted by a 1929 act of the Irish Free State.
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.
Eimear McBride is an Irish novelist, whose debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, won the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
Girls in Their Married Bliss is the third and final novel in Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls Trilogy following The Country Girls and The Lonely Girl. The novel was first published in Britain in 1964. The novel was less well received, because of its darker themes and writing, and wasn't published in the United States until 1967.
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 brings elements of the thriller genre to O'Brien's ongoing explorations of Irish society. It is based on the life of Dominic McGlinchy, whom O'Brien interviewed while incarcerated in Portlaoise Prison.
Down by the River is a 1997 novel by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien. The novel depicts the response of a local community the a girl, Mary, abuse by her father being exposed to their local community when she tries to get an abortion. The ensuing legal battle in a country which bans abortions.
Girl is a 2019 novel by Irish author Edna O'Brien. The book's plot is inspired by the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria, and is narrated by a fictional victim, Maryam.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.