Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Thursday, March 6, 2014

"Fugue" by Sean O'Faolain (1932)





Event Resources  Everyone Is Invited to Join Us for Irish Short Story Month Year Four

Ways to Participate-you can do a post on your blog and let me know about it-I will keep a master list and I will publicize your post and blog.

If you are an Irish connected  author and would like to be featured, please contact me.   There are several options open.

If you would like to do a guest post on my blog on anything related to Irish short stories, contact me.



"Down below me in the valley I heard an early cart; the morning wind, light and bitter, sang occasionally in the key of the flooded streams. The dawn moved along the rim of the mountains, and as I went down the hill I felt the new day come up around me and felt life begin once more its ancient, ceaseless gyre." From "Fugue"

Sean O'Faolain (1900 to 1991-Cork City, Ireland) was the son of a policeman.   He fought in the Irish War for Independence,  1919 to 1921.    He received M.A. degrees from the National University of Ireland and Harvard.    From 1940 to 1900 he was the director of a very prestigious Irish literary journal, The Bell.   His daughter Julia O'Faolain is a Booker Prize nominated author.    

O"Faolain was a very productive writer.   He published 13 books and over 90 short stories.   When collected, his short stories were over 1300 pages.    

I posted on short stories by O'Faolain during ISSM in 2011 and 2012 and am glad to be posting on a very well done, considered by those knowledgable about his work, autobiographical story about his experiences during The Irish Civil War, "Fugue".  

The story opens with two soldiers on the Republican side in The Irish Civil War hiding in the countryside from troops of the other side, who will shoot them on sight.  The narrator loves the natural beauty of Ireland, wonderfully described in the story.  He and his friend find a house to hide within.   They can only hope it is a house of sympathizers.  The soldiers are young and there  is a beautiful young woman alone inside the house.  In a very erotic and explicit scene for Ireland in 1932, the man and woman share a small passionate moment.  The story has a tragic ending.

Certainly this story is worth reading.  I found it online here.


Mel u 







 

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