Edna O'Brien, Irish Author of “The Country Girls ”Series, Dies at 93: 'A Fearless Teller of Truths'

Edna O'Brien, Irish Author of “The Country Girls ”Series, Dies at 93: 'A Fearless Teller of Truths' https://ift.tt/Ip5bwHM

O'Brien's 'The Country Girls' was lauded as a feminine tale of girlhood after its release in 1960 — despite being banned in Ireland

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Edna O’Brien in September 2016

Edna O'Brien, the renowned Irish author of book series including The Country Girls, has died. She was 93.

Her publisher, Faber Books, announced her death in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, July 28.

"It is with great sadness that Caroline Michel at PFD and Faber announce the death of beloved author Edna O’Brien," the statement read. "She died peacefully on Saturday 27 July after a long illness. Our thoughts are with her family and friends, in particular her sons Marcus and Carlo. The family has requested privacy at this time."

Originally from County Clare, Ireland, O'Brien was born in 1930 and found literary success with her debut novel, The Country Girls, when it was published in 1960, as well as the book's two sequels, The Lonely Girl and Girls in Their Married Bliss, per The Washington Post. The series follows protagonists Caithleen and Baba as they grow up as schoolgirls, marry and dream about their futures.

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Edna O'Brien

Although The Country Girls saw great success in Britain and the United States after its release, it was banned in Ireland due to censorship rules and staunchly Catholic values in place at the time.

"I believe that mental disturbance by literature is a healthy and invigorating thing," O'Brien told The Guardian in 1965, according to The Washington Post. "We have plenty of comfortable and easy prose all around us, but it’s by abrasion that people’s prejudices are aroused."

Prior to her life as a writer, O'Brien began her career as a pharmacist in 1950, later marrying fellow writer Ernest Gébler and welcoming two sons with him. The pair divorced in 1964.

By 1959, she had moved to London with her family and began working for the publisher Hutchinson, according to The Guardian. Before long, the company had commissioned her to write her own novel.

O'Brien's works have been praised over the years for their feminist stances and stories that followed women living in a male-led society. Over the course of her career, she wrote numerous other novels including 2015's The Little Red Chairs, 1994's House of Splendid Isolation and 2019's Girls. Her career also expanded beyond fiction books — she penned screenplays, plays, a memoir titled Country Girl and biographies of James Joyce and Lord Byron.

"I've fallen in and out of [favor] with feminists, because I do not write to formula or hold to a rigid political correctness. I couldn't," she said in a 2015 interview with her publisher, Faber, speaking about her status as a feminist writer. "But let me say this, I know that women have been treated appallingly down the ages."

"I grew up in a patriarchal society and my first books, for all their comedy, are partly protest. I do not [apologize] to anyone for giving my women broken hearts, because it happens and it happens for men also," she added. "If you write about feelings, then you have a vast and moving canvas to explore."

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Faber said in a statement to The Guardian that O'Brien was "one of the greatest writers of our age."

"She [revolutionized] Irish literature, capturing the lives of women and the complexities of the human condition in prose that was luminous and spare, and which had a profound influence on so many writers who followed her," the publisher added.

O'Brien was lauded by critics over the years, receiving the 2001 Irish PEN lifetime achievement award and in 2015, Irish President Michael D. Higgins awarded her with country’s highest literary award, the Saoi of Aosdána.

On Sunday, Higgins shared a lengthy statement following the news of her death, calling her "one of the outstanding writers of modern times, her work has been sought as model all around the world."

"Edna was a fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed," Higgins wrote.

"Through that deeply insightful work, rich in humanity, Edna O’Brien was one of the first writers to provide a true voice to the experiences of women in Ireland in their different generations and played an important role in transforming the status of women across Irish society," he added.

O'Brien is survived by her sons Carlo Gébler and Sasha Gébler.

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