Novel
The Country Girls
Edna O'Brien · 1960
Synopsis
In a village in the west of Ireland, in the late fifties, Caithleen Brady, dreamy and romantic, leaves the family farm on a scholarship to enter a convent with her friend Baba Brennan, who thinks only of enjoying life. Fleeing the harshness of religious life, the two girls make their way to Dublin, where they discover the city, love and desire, while their friendship turns into rivalry.
Context
The novel came out in London from Hutchinson in 1960 and opened a trilogy continued by The Lonely Girl and Girls in Their Married Bliss. As soon as it appeared, Irish censorship banned it under the 1929 act; it was denounced from the pulpit, and copies are said to have been burned. Desmond Davis adapted it for the cinema in 1983. In French, it appeared as early as 1960 from Julliard as La Jeune Irlandaise, then in the trilogy translated by Léo Dilé, from Fayard in 1988 and Sabine Wespieser in 2024.
Who it is for
For following two Irish teenagers hungry for freedom, in Edna O'Brien's first novel, banned in her own country.
Prizes and reception
Attacked in Ireland, the book enjoyed great international success and is regarded as a landmark of Irish women's writing.