The Complete Stories (Paperback)

by Flannery O'Connor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"What we lost when she died is bitter. What we have is astonishing: the stories burn brighter than ever, and strike deeper." --Walter Clemons, Newsweek
-- Review

Review

"What we lost when she died is bitter. What we have is astonishing: the stories burn brighter than ever, and strike deeper." --Walter Clemons, Newsweek

See all Editorial Reviews

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Product Details Paperback: 555 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 33 edition (January 1, 1971) Language: English ISBN-10: 0374515360 ISBN-13: 978-0374515362 Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,806 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #1 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( O ) > O'Connor, Flannery #3 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Anthologies #14 in  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking

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Citations (learn more)

100 books cite this book:

• Understanding Flannery O' Connor (Understanding Contemporary American Literature) by Margaret Earley Whitt on 4 pages
• My Father Is a Book by Janna Malamud Smith in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
• Judas: Images of the Lost Disciple by Kim Paffenroth in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
• New Essays on Wise Blood (The American Novel) by Michael Kreyling on page 69, page 89, and Back Matter
• Flannery O'connor's Sacramental Art by Susan Srigley in Front Matter, and Back Matter

See all 100 books citing this book

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	85% buy the item featured on this page: The Complete Stories 4.7 out of 5 stars (63) $12.24
	7% buy Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America) 4.8 out of 5 stars (15) $23.10
	3% buy A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories 4.3 out of 5 stars (44) $10.94
	3% buy Everything That Rises Must Converge 4.5 out of 5 stars (22) $10.88

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Customer Reviews

63 Reviews 5 star:  (54) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.7 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 73 of 80 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars America's Best Short Story Writer, By  Maclen (Hawaii, USA) - See all my reviews    I studied Flannery O'Connor in college and wrote a thesis on her works. Her stories were mesmerizing and riveting, and I have re-read them many times since. She was firmly rooted in the Southern grotesque, but she was able to transcend the stark terrain of the South and present remarkable studies of human foibles and the self searching for meaning and redemption. O'Connor had the uncanny gift to describe people, surroundings and life with astonishingly spare prose. Her genius was that she could reveal the mystery and manners in us all. Of particular note are "Revelation" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." You must read this collection, and I promise that her stories will speak to you for years to come. 43 of 46 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Better Collection Of Short Stories Available, January 5, 1999 By A Customer The first half of the 20th century. Ask yourself about the short stories. Everybody wrote them. Ask yourself abut the best: Eudora Welty, Fredric Brown, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway. And there is one name that is simply the best, against any competitors, against any subject matter, against any sex: Flannery O'Connor. I only hope that she knows that 35 years after her death her "The Complete Stories" is still is a best selling compilation and one of the most recommended books I have ever seen. They try to tie her to the south. They try to label her a woman's writer. They haven't read her. Flannery O'Connor is the best 20th century short story writer. Period. AND, she also wins the prize for best final lines in her stories. Didn't know there was a prize for best final lines? I have invented it. "Then she recognized the feeling again, a little roll. It was if it were not her stomach. It was if it were out nowhere in nothing, out nowhere, resting and waiting, with plenty of time." "The sherrif's brain worked instantly like a calculating machine. As he scrutinized the scene, further insights were flashed to him. He was accustomed to enter upon scenes that were not as bad as he had hoped to find them, but this one met his expectations." "Mr. Paradise's head appeared from time to time on the surface of the water. Finally, far downstream, the old man rose like some ancient water monster and stood empty-handed, staring with his dull eyes as far down the river as he could see." 50 of 55 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons to be learned here--O'Connor was no fool, March 25, 2002 By  SEP "sepowe" (Texas) - See all my reviews I read this collection during college, in my senior literature seminar. I find O'Connor's stories to be the best, most brutally honest, thought-provoking and attitude-altering work out there. One piece deserving of mention are the classic "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the last line of which reasonates long after the reader closes the book. O'Connor craftily delivers messages about racism, elitism and other problems of the deep South in her stories, and beautifully maintains the Southern Gothic texture in each one. I can't recommend this book any more enthusiastically!		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Flannery O'Conner's "The Complete Stories" I afixed Joyce Carol Oates' acrid response to a NYTimes review of O'Conner's work in the front of the collection that I newly purchased. Read more Published 3 months ago by Colin P. Macrae 5.0 out of 5 stars storytelling at its very best I never get tired of reading O'Connor. Vivid, wry, tragic and shocking, these stories are keenly observed revelations of human foibles and spiritual failure. Read more Published 6 months ago by Julia M. Townsend 5.0 out of 5 stars One of Two Must Own Collection of Short Stories The other is Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. I know this may seem odd to have O'Connor, the genius of revealing the inner workings of the human, beside Gaiman, but if you read... Read more Published 8 months ago by Irene A. 5.0 out of 5 stars Completely Unique This is my favorite book of short stories. I am amazed at how the author can blend such a diverse mixture of feelings into a story. Read more Published 9 months ago by Jesse M. Dunlap 5.0 out of 5 stars Flannery O'Connor, one twisted sister This was my first introduction to O'Connor's work. Had I known how thoeoughly I would enjoy, I would have read her years ago. Read more Published 12 months ago by lovesexlaughs 4.0 out of 5 stars American Sophocles Thomas Merton said of O'Connor that when he thought of her, he did not think of her in terms of her peers in contemporary fiction (i.e. Read more Published 13 months ago by Joseph Barbarie 5.0 out of 5 stars The Devil's In The Details "Grace changes us, and change is painful." O'Connor, a delicate Southern Catholic who lived a third of her life ravaged by lupus, was certainly acquainted with pain... Read more Published 13 months ago by Mark Eremite 4.0 out of 5 stars Dark, very dark One does not read Flannery O' Connor for feel good endings. The characters feel incredibly real, in that their innate psychology is so easy to realte to. Read more Published 14 months ago by Nathan Thelen 5.0 out of 5 stars Roman-Catholic-Southern-Gothic I suppose Flannery O'Connor has her own genre, and the reader gets it aplenty in The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor (550 pages of it). Read more Published 14 months ago by Eric Maroney 5.0 out of 5 stars 31 stories of violent grace, madmen, prejudice, and fierce redemption. Thirty-one stories and 550 pages rest within this collection. Each story has its own merit, but I would like to take a moment to describe the ones that have best remained... Read more Published 21 months ago by Joel Munyon Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 555 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 33 edition (January 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374515360
• ISBN-13: 978-0374515362
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,806 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( O ) > O'Connor, Flannery
  #3 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Anthologies
  #14 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Best Short Story Writer,

By	Maclen (Hawaii, USA) - See all my reviews

I studied Flannery O'Connor in college and wrote a thesis on her works. Her stories were mesmerizing and riveting, and I have re-read them many times since. She was firmly rooted in the Southern grotesque, but she was able to transcend the stark terrain of the South and present remarkable studies of human foibles and the self searching for meaning and redemption.

O'Connor had the uncanny gift to describe people, surroundings and life with astonishingly spare prose. Her genius was that she could reveal the mystery and manners in us all. Of particular note are "Revelation" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." You must read this collection, and I promise that her stories will speak to you for years to come.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Better Collection Of Short Stories Available, January 5, 1999

By A Customer

The first half of the 20th century. Ask yourself about the short stories. Everybody wrote them. Ask yourself abut the best: Eudora Welty, Fredric Brown, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway. And there is one name that is simply the best, against any competitors, against any subject matter, against any sex: Flannery O'Connor. I only hope that she knows that 35 years after her death her "The Complete Stories" is still is a best selling compilation and one of the most recommended books I have ever seen. They try to tie her to the south. They try to label her a woman's writer. They haven't read her. Flannery O'Connor is the best 20th century short story writer. Period. AND, she also wins the prize for best final lines in her stories. Didn't know there was a prize for best final lines? I have invented it.

"Then she recognized the feeling again, a little roll. It was if it were not her stomach. It was if it were out nowhere in nothing, out nowhere, resting and waiting, with plenty of time."

"The sherrif's brain worked instantly like a calculating machine. As he scrutinized the scene, further insights were flashed to him. He was accustomed to enter upon scenes that were not as bad as he had hoped to find them, but this one met his expectations."

"Mr. Paradise's head appeared from time to time on the surface of the water. Finally, far downstream, the old man rose like some ancient water monster and stood empty-handed, staring with his dull eyes as far down the river as he could see."

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons to be learned here--O'Connor was no fool, March 25, 2002

By	SEP "sepowe" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I read this collection during college, in my senior literature seminar. I find O'Connor's stories to be the best, most brutally honest, thought-provoking and attitude-altering work out there. One piece deserving of mention are the classic "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the last line of which reasonates long after the reader closes the book. O'Connor craftily delivers messages about racism, elitism and other problems of the deep South in her stories, and beautifully maintains the Southern Gothic texture in each one. I can't recommend this book any more enthusiastically!