Flann O'Brien, At Swim Two Birds

Carol Taaffe (Trinity College Dublin)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Eoghan Smith (Carlow College), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1939

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

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Metafiction
Novel

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At Swim-Two-Birds

, Flann O'Brien's first novel, was published in March 1939. As early as 1935, the UCD magazine

Comhthrom Féinne

reported that the university's “best humorous writer” was “engaged on a novel so ingeniously constructed that the plot is keeping him well in hand”. Years later the author declared that anything which took longer than six months to write was not a good book, but at that stage of his life, he was quite happy to dismiss

At Swim

as mere juvenilia. Despite the author's disdain, it has remained his most famous comic achievement. In the same year he began writing

At Swim-Two-Birds

, Brian O'Nolan – Flann O'Brien's alter ego – began work as a junior administrative officer in the Irish Civil Service. Civil Service regulations contributed to O'Nolan's…

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2207 words

Citation: Taaffe, Carol. "At Swim Two Birds". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6483, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Flann O'Brien, At Swim Two Birds

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