Flannery O'Connor

Born March 25, 1925 · Died August 3, 1964

O'Connor was American writer, particularly acclaimed for her stories which combined comic with tragic and brutal. Along with authors like Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor belonged to the Southern Gothic tradition that focused on the decaying South and its damned people.

Quotes

“Mrs. May's bedroom window was low and faced on the east and the bull, silvered in the moonlight, stood under it, his head raised as if he listened-like some patient god come down to woo her-for a stir inside the room.”
beginning of the story "Greenleaf" in Everything That Rises Must Converge 1965
“Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings.”
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't write fiction. It isn't grand enough for you.”
"The Nature and Aim of Fiction"
“The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where the human perception begins. He appeals through the senses, and you cannot appeal through the senses with abstractions.”
"The Nature and Aim of Fiction"
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”
from letters

Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0), chosen with AI.

Books by Flannery O'Connor in order

Books by Flannery O'Connor in the order they were published, from New World Writing (1952) to Misterium I Maniery (2020).

If you like Flannery O'Connor

Authors readers of Flannery O'Connor often like, from our AI-written notes

Carson McCullersA Southern Gothic writer of the same generation, concerned with isolated, damaged characters.
Eudora WeltyA Southern writer of the same period whose short stories also look closely at place, manners and sudden change.
William FaulknerA major Southern writer whose work deals with the region's history, violence and religious life.
Nathanael WestA writer of bleak, comic American fiction about belief, desperation and grotesque characters.
Cormac McCarthyA later Southern writer who shares a preoccupation with violence and a religious undertone.
Shirley JacksonA writer of unsettling American stories in which ordinary settings turn cruel.