The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story [Paperback]

Frank O'Connor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

The legendary book about writing by the legendary writer is back!Frank O’Connor was one of the twentieth century’s greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland’s greatest authors ever. Now, O’Connor’s influential and sought-after book on the short story is back.THE LONELY VOICE offers a master class with the master. With his sharp wit and straightforward prose, O’Connor not only discusses the techniques and challenges of a form in which "a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes," but he also delves into a passionate consideration of his favorite writers and their greatest works, including Chekhov, Hemingway, Kipling, Joyce, and others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE LONELY VOICE

“A dazzling and provocative introduction to talking about what people do when they sit down to write short stories.” —from the introduction by Russell Banks

“This is a brilliant book on a subject about which little has been written. It carries, besides, the authority a critical work always possesses when its author is a distinguished practitioner of the art he is criticizing.”
    —The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

FRANK O'CONNOR is widely recognized as one of Ireland’s greatest writers and cultural figures. He lived in the United States off and on after 1952, teaching at Harvard and Stanford, and writing stories for The New Yorker magazine. His most popular works include his Collected Stories, Guest of the Nation, and An Only Child.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Melville House (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097186599X
• ISBN-13: 978-0971865990
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for students of the short story genre, March 4, 2005

By 

Ogden Gnash (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (Paperback)

O'Connor's in-depth analysis goes to the heart of what the short story genre is about. It is written with unstinting commitment and erudition, and never strays into shallowness of any kind. For those who love his stories, it is perhaps surprising to find the beguiling storyteller in this academic vein. What is convincing is not so much his arguments as his evident passion and long reflection on the topics he chooses. To grapple with the theories he propounds, such as that of the short story representing "submerged populations" is to try and share a little in the maestro's genius. Something to come back to again and again. I'm sure my little review hardly does justice to it, so I suggest you read the book and see for yourself.

19 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An influential but grotesquely dated work, January 26, 2005

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (Harper colophon books) (Paperback)

There have been few fulllength studies of the short story, and Frank O'Connor's was one of the first and remains among the most influential. But it has held up miserably over the years. Even granted that he published the work in 1962, was it really necessary for O'Connor to refer so patronizingly to Katherine Mansfield as "the brassy little shopgirl of literature"? Or to treat Joyce's DUBLINERS as if it had been written in lightning on the summit of Mt. Sinai? (Of a sentence from "The Sisters," O'Connor writes, "You may play about as you please with alternatives to this phrase; you will find no combination of adjectives that will produce a similar effect, nor any way of reading the passage that will produce a different one.") Objectivity goes straight out the window; as a result, this study is much more useful as a picture of the literary attitudes of O'Connor's time than it is as any sort of rigorous study of the form it purports to analyze.