| 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) | 
 enlarge | Author: Flannery O'connor
Publisher: Library of America
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy Used: $15.03
You Save: $19.97 (57%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 30254
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1300
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0940450372
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780940450370
ASIN: 0940450372
Publication Date: September 1, 1988
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ex-library in fine condition. Clean and unmarked, other than library stamps and stickers. Good binding. A bit of scuffing to mylar cover.
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Product Description
Flannery O'Connor, a unique and important figure in the Southern literary tradition, was one of the finest writers of the twentieth century. This volume, containing her two novels, short stories, essays and letters, is the only complete collection of her works.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Classic May 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Now that I've read everything by O'Connor (including works that were part of her thesis for her degree in writing) I am still amazed and inspired by her work. I'm not from the south or Catholic and I was not alive during the eras of which she wrote, but her writing transcends region and time. My favorites remain A Good Man is Hard to Find, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Revelation, but I love all her stories, although I find the novels a bit more challenging - I think short story was her finest form. Her ability to mix desperation and violence with comedy is amazing, and often when I read her I think: "I shouldn't be laughing at that." I often wonder what additional work she would have produced if she had not died so young. Highly recommended.
Great literature in great binding January 16, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am thoroughly enjoying this authoritative collection of O'Connor's writings. The writing speaks for itself as truly great and unique. This particular book is very classy and well put together; an excellent choice for someone with a significant interest in O'Connor.
Amazing Grace January 21, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
How sweet the sound that saved this wreched human race. O'Connor writes of God's love and redemption of humanity. She uses exaggeration to make her point. Her characters are so very silly, obtuse, bigoted, loathsome they become cartoons, yet there is a deep integrity to their shallowness. She's not making fun of them, but giving them the justice of a pitiless description. Indeed they do not seem judged, but naked -- the fruits of their stupid, misguided ideas and actions on display. And these children of God do shocking things to others and themselves. And yet . . ..
And yet God allows them to live and learn, or not learn if that is their inclination. He gives them this freedom. He loves them. How can this be? How?
I love O'Connor for her art, her convictions, her courage, and her love. She is so very true and honest.
In addition to her novels and a thorough selection of short stories, there is a chronology of her life and a selection of her letters which are rewarding reading. The book itself is a wonderful object. The pages are of fine paper. The binding is such that you can lay it open on a table without breaking its back, and the pages will not move unless a breeze or you do so.
a lovely book December 23, 2004
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Oh yes! I adore her, and so do my mum and dad. They talk about her all of the time, and so I grew up with the prose ringing in my ears. I am so pleased to be reading her now.
Just Read It All September 1, 2004
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
The complaints about the poor organization of the collection can be overcome by simply reading it from front to back. Surely it is that good.
My foray into the works of Flannery O'Connor, a southern, gothic author of darkly humorous novels and short stories came via a recommendation in Harold Bloom's, "What to Read and Why." As it turned ot, I had read one of her short stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," in a collection somewhere and had been surprised and shocked, by the turn of events and ending of the story, so much so, that I remembered it instantly, even though it has to have been thirty years since I read it. I enjoyed everything, short stories, novellas, and even her letters. She writes about southern Christ-haunted people, most backward, all damned, but many redeemed. Bloom says that according to her, we are all damned but one should put that aside and simply enjoy her beautiful, grotesque, and wonderful comedic stories. Her protagonist is often a woman, forced to take on a role and duties she didn't sign up for but resignedly and with no illusions playing and discharging both out of a sense of morality or necessity; those women are usually the most superior beings in her stories.
Many of her insights stick with me months afterwards. For example, O'Connor says in one of her letters, "...Hazel's integrity lies in his not being able to do so. Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen." That brought tears to my eyes -- perhaps because it is so beautifully put.
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