Return Of The Brute by Liam O'Flaherty

[SMG65]

Having just read this book for a third time and still wondering whether I like it, does anyone know the background of the author?

He must have served in the trenches.

Sean

[ianw]

I think he served in the Irish Guards and was wounded near Ypres.

[swizz]

There is some info about him here:

http://www.bookconsult.com/LiamOFlaherty/index.htm

and here: (this is from http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/ilv/oflaherty.htm)

O'Flaherty's life took an odd twist when he dropped out of University College and enlisted in the British Army in 1915. Three reasons exist as to why O'Flaherty made such a drastic move. First, O'Flaherty was rather disillusioned with the Republican cause because its leaders were not as violent and apt to rebel as O'Flaherty would have liked. He felt that they were overly cautious with Republican actions (Doyle 20). Also, O'Flaherty wanted a sense of excitement as war was in the air. Finally, and more realistically, O'Flaherty did not want to lose his scholarship to the University. He was not doing very well academically, and the students enlisting in the British Army "had their scholarships held over until they could resume their studies" (Doyle 20).

The military did not agree with O'Flaherty. He realized that he was not a warrior but rather an intellectual and stated:

I passed that night numb with horror of the future; horrified by the coarse beings who had joined the same day as myself as much as by the inhuman rigidity and ferocious language of those already trained as soldiers (O'Flaherty qtd. in Sheeran 66).

In 1917 at Langemarck, O'Flaherty was seriously wounded by a bomb shell. He was discharge, not from the physical wounds, which had by then healed, but for melancholia acuta (Sheeran 67). This condition made O'Flaherty rather unstable. He always felt an impending "calamity" (Sheeran 67). Needless to say, O'Flaherty came back from the war a bit frazzled. The excitement that he was yearning for was not found; too much excitement was found in the war. His insights were violent and full of fear. The war was both harmful and beneficial (Sheeran 67).

Hope this is of interest

Swizz

[truthergw]

There is some info about him here:

.........

[Hope this is of interest

Swizz

Very interesting indeed. I have often looked at this book in the lists and then passed on by. It rather sounds as though I shall have to read it now.

[irishmen1916]

I have just finished this book (novel), and found it very dark, O'Flaherty's description

of the mud, slime,rain,shell fire, lack of sleep, hunger and death really gives one a insight

into life at the front, but what is even more informative or sadder is how he portrays the human mind, and how it works under extreme stress, and how under this stress the soldiers react to each other their NCO's and Officers.

Its a quick read only 139 pages, and at £6.99 well worth a read, but as I say very dark, but then again they where very dark times.

Peter

[Desmond7]

If you are very lucky you can snap this up for a mere £1 at Bargain Books ... the same may apply at various other 'cheapo' book stores on mainland.

[irishmen1916]

If you are very lucky you can snap this up for a mere £1 at Bargain Books ... the same may apply at various other 'cheapo' book stores on mainland.

Thanks Des for the tip, I was going by the price printed on the back cover, got this from my son at Christmes. £1 ??? wait till I get home and see the cheapskate

[Desmond7]

Oops.

[IanA]

I have just finished rereading this and can recommend it wholeheartedly.