Kate O'Brien
Encyclopedia
Kate O'Brien was an Irish
novelist and playwright.
City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent. She graduated from the newly established University College, Dublin and then went to work at the Manchester Guardian. After the success of her play Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her debut novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices, and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books deal with issues of female sexuality — several of them explore gay
/lesbian
themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury
in 1974; she is buried in Faversham
Cemetery.
The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick
currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings http://www.ul.ie/~alumni/@_ul.htm. In August 2005, Penguin
reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien Weekend, which takes place in Limerick
, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.
In the film, Brief Encounter (1945), Celia Johnson speaks about collecting "the latest Kate O'Brien."
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
novelist and playwright.
Biography
Kathleen "Kate" Mary Louie O'Brien was born in LimerickLimerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent. She graduated from the newly established University College, Dublin and then went to work at the Manchester Guardian. After the success of her play Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her debut novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices, and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books deal with issues of female sexuality — several of them explore gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
/lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
in 1974; she is buried in Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
Cemetery.
The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick
University of Limerick
The University of Limerick is a university in Ireland near the city of Limerick on the island's west coast. It was established in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick and became a university by statute in 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989...
currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings http://www.ul.ie/~alumni/@_ul.htm. In August 2005, Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien Weekend, which takes place in Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.
In the film, Brief Encounter (1945), Celia Johnson speaks about collecting "the latest Kate O'Brien."
Novels
- Without My Cloak (1931)
- The Ante-Room (1934)
- Mary Lavelle (1936) (adapted as the 1998 film Talk of AngelsTalk of AngelsTalk Of Angels is a film directed in 1996 by Nick Hamm, but not released by its production company, Miramax, until 1998. The film received mostly unfavorable comparisons to Casablanca, Dr...
) - Pray for the Wanderer (1938)
- The Land of Spices (1941)
- The Last of Summer (1943)
- That Lady (1946) (later a 1949 BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show and a 1955 movieThat LadyThat Lady is a 1955 film directed by Terence Young. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Gilbert Roland and Paul Scofield.The film is based on the 1946 historical novel by Kate O'Brien, which was published in North America under the title For One Sweet Grape. The novel was also produced as a play in 1949....
) - The Flower of May (1953)
- As Music and Splendour (1958)
Other Works
- Distinguished Villa: A Play in Three Acts (1926)
- Farewell Spain (1937)
- Teresa of Avila (1951)
- My Ireland (1962)
- Presentation Parlour (1963)
Critical Studies of O'Brien
- Lorna Reynolds: Kate O'Brien: A Literary Portrait (1987)
- Adele M. Dalsimer: Kate O'Brien: A Critical Study (1990)
- Éibhear Walshe (editor): Ordinary People Dancing: Essays on Kate O'Brien (1993)
- Éibhear Walshe: Kate O'Brien: A Writing Life (2006)
Critical Essays on O'Brien
- Joan Ryan: "Class and Creed in the Novels of Kate O'Brien" in M. Harmon (editor): The Irish Writer and the City (1984)
- Lorna Reynolds: "The Image of Spain in the Novels of Kate O'Brien" in W. Zack and H Kosok (editors): National Images and Stereotypes (1988)
- Anne C. Fogarty: "The Ear of the Other: Dissident Voices in Kate O'Brien's As Music and Splendor and Mary Dorcey's A Noise From the Woodshed" in Éibhear Walshe (editor): Sex, Nation and Dissent in Irish Writing (1997)
- Eamon Maher: "Love and the Loss of Faith in the Novels of Kate O'Brien" in Crosscurrents and Confluences (2000)
- Angela Ryan:"'A Franco-Irish Solution?' Francois Mauriac, Kate O' Brien and the Catholic Intellectual Novel". in France and Ireland: Anatomy of a Relationship. Ed E. Maher and G. Neville. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2004: 97-109.
Film Adaptations
- That LadyThat LadyThat Lady is a 1955 film directed by Terence Young. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Gilbert Roland and Paul Scofield.The film is based on the 1946 historical novel by Kate O'Brien, which was published in North America under the title For One Sweet Grape. The novel was also produced as a play in 1949....
(1955) starring Olivia de Havilland, Gilbert Roland, and Paul Scofield - Last of Summer (TV, 1977)
- Talk of AngelsTalk of AngelsTalk Of Angels is a film directed in 1996 by Nick Hamm, but not released by its production company, Miramax, until 1998. The film received mostly unfavorable comparisons to Casablanca, Dr...
(1998) starring Polly Walker, Vincent Perez, Franco Nero, Frances McDormand, Ruth McCabe and Penelope Cruz
See also
- LimerickLimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
- Irish literatureIrish literatureFor a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...
- Censorship in the Republic of IrelandCensorship in the Republic of IrelandIreland rarely exercises censorship though the state retains wide-ranging laws which allow for it, including specific laws covering films, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, as well as terrorism and pornography...
- Feminist history in the United KingdomFeminist history in the United KingdomFeminism in the United Kingdom covers the Feminism movement in the United Kingdom through history to the present day.-19th century:...
- List of people on stamps of Ireland
Further reading
- Irish Writers on Writing featuring Kate O'Brien. Edited by Eavan BolandEavan Boland-Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...
(Trinity University Press, 2007).
External links
- Litencyc
- Biography
- Kate O'Brien Weekend
- Portraits of Kate O'Brien in the National Portrait Gallery (London).