Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly found soul named "Joe," he grapples with the riddles andcontradictions that three eccentric policeman present to him.The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.

    Finn and Derval Dove, desperate to escape from their cruel stepfather, make a dangerous journey across England and Ireland to find their grandmother.

    But Donn longs for a wider kingdom. He deserts his bride, roams the world, fights in wars, is footloose - yet finds that he is homesick. Sixteen years later he returns to take up the threads of his old life, to learn to love his afflicted daughter, and to bring progress to the neglected green valley. Light comes, water flows, the land prospers. Then, on a night of innocent festivity, a monstrous crime is perpetrated. His kingdom violated, Donn dedicates himself to a terrible revenge that can only destroy the avenger as well as the hunted

    First published in 1967, In the Middle of the Fields explores lives that are multi-layered and secretive, peculiar and intimate, and offers a window into the quiet tragedies and joys of human life. This collection is a profound example of Lavin’s unique control, insight and subtlety.

    P. Donleavy's hilarious, bittersweet tale of a lost young man's existential odyssey, "a triumphant piece of writing, achieved with that total authority, total mastery which shows that a fine writer is fully extended...." In the years before and after World War II, Balthazar B is the world's last shy, elegant young man. Born to riches in Paris and raised by his governess, Balthazar is shipped off to a British boarding school, where he meets the noble but naughty Beefy. The duo matriculate to Trinity College, Dublin, where Balthazar reads zoology and Beefy prepares for holy orders, all the while sharing amorous adventures high and low, until their university careers come to an abrupt and decidedly unholy end. Written with trademark bravado and a healthy dose of sincerity, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B is vintage Donleavy.

    These eleven plays cover the whole brilliant spectrum of Yeats' dramatic genius - from the romantic dramas of his youth to his last play, The Death of Cuchulain, written shorty before his death at the age of seventy-three.Manager of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin for many years, Yeats devoted great energy and courage to the creation of an Irish theatre and a poetic drama. He discovered and aided the work of other Irish dramatists, Lady Gregoy and John Synge among them. In this own plays he sought to express romantic love, to give life to literary and philosphical ideas, and to restate the heroic ideal. His desire to believe, to create the great moments of tragedy, to convey something of his sardonic as well as his profoundly serious attitude to life resulted, as the plays in this volume so powerfully attest, in a body of dramatic work of unparalleled beauty and emotional intensity.

    A fairyland so real that young readers will know that it is just around the corner.Here the prices are good and handsome, the princesses beautiful and honest. There is a crock of gold at the end of every rainbow. The good people and the kind people always get their just reward. And the evil-doer gets his just deserts.In other words, here is the land of the imagination of the young. A land with a special charm and appeal that makes grown-ups wish they ere young again - and makes children happy that they still have the power to believe. "All the stories are beautifully told. How happy Mrs. de Valera must be writing stories thay bring so much happiness to children and parents alike." - back cover blurb.