''The Hard Life: An Exegesis of Squalor'' is a comic
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
by
Flann O'Brien
Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth cen ...
(pen name of Brian O'Nolan). Published in 1961, it was O'Brien's fourth novel and the third to be published. (He wrote ''
The Third Policeman
''The Third Policeman'' is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation ...
'' in 1939, but it was published only posthumously, in 1967). Set in turn-of-the-century
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, ''The Hard Life'' is a satirical
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...
that deals with the education and upbringing of the narrator, Finbarr, and his brother Manus. The novel offers a mocking critique of certain representatives of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, the development of
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
identity and the functioning of formal education. The novel was initially very popular, with its first print run selling out within forty-eight hours (p. 271), and it has been republished several times in Ireland, Britain and the United States, both as a stand-alone work and, most recently, in ''Flann O'Brien: The Complete Novels'' (Everyman's Library, 2007).
Plot summary
The story opens with the narrator, Finbarr, recalling the death of his mother in 1890, when he was around five years old. He and his brother Manus (often referred to simply as "the brother") are raised in the home of their half-uncle, Mr Collopy. Collopy lives with his partner Mrs Crotty – it is unclear if they are married and the narrator can only speculate as to why she retained the name of her first husband – and Annie, Collopy's daughter from an earlier marriage. Finbarr describes Collopy's home as a squalid environment where the boys are served greasy meatballs for dinner, a household with a "dead atmosphere" offering little opportunity for amusement. Collopy and the
parish priest
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
, a German
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
domiciled in Dublin and bearing the comical name of Father Fahrt, frequently indulge in long bouts of drinking, and none of the adults exhibits much concern for the child's welfare.
Finbarr attends
Synge Street Christian Brothers School, the former school of O'Brien/O'Nolan himself, while Manus attends Westland Row Christian Brothers School. Both schools are run by the Catholic
Christian Brothers, both boys detest their schools with equal passion, and O'Brien mocks both with equal contempt. Finbarr's first impression of his school is that it resembles a prison: he describes the horrors of
corporal punishment by "the leather" in detail, and refers to "struggling through the wretched homework, cursing
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
and
Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' trea ...
and
Christian Doctrine
Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, ...
and similar scourges of youth".
Manus is both resourceful and deceitful, and while still at school he comes up with a cunning idea to raise money. He offers
distance-learning
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
courses for a small fee on a wide variety of subjects about which he knows very little. He researches information on these subjects in the local library and re-hashes the prose of encyclopedias, writing in a pseudo-intellectual, abstruse style deliberately designed to look impressive but remain incomprehensible. This business proves extremely successful, and eventually he leaves school and emigrates to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where he offers a wider range of courses and also develops medicinal remedies to sell.
Meanwhile, Mr Collopy is dedicating his time to the pursuit of a certain social or political cause, but never states the nature of this cause directly. Early in the novel it appears that the issue holds considerable gravity: it seems to concern
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
, and Collopy is rallying the Dublin Corporation to implement some kind of change and trying to persuade Father Fahrt to secure the support of the church. However, later in the novel it becomes clear that the issue in question is the establishment of public lavatories in Dublin and that, while Collopy is campaigning for this goal, he is just as prudish as the Dublin authorities he is fighting against, because he will mention the issue only through
euphemisms
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes t ...
or circumlocutions.
When Collopy falls ill Manus sends Finbarr one of his potions, "Gravid Water", to help him. However, Finbarr administers the wrong dosage, which causes rapid weight gain and eventually leads to Collopy's death. Manus also devises a scheme to get Collopy and Father Fahrt an audience with Pope
Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
, so that Collopy can win papal support for the lavatory campaign. However, Manus is aware that the Pope will have little time for Collopy and Fahrt, and enjoys the spectacle of their humiliation, as the angry Pope, in a mixture of Latin and Italian, quite literally sends them to Hell. The novel closes with Finbarr vomiting out of a feeling of disgust at his brother's lack of morals, and at the squalid and hypocritical world he lives in.
The novel opens in 1890 and the date on Collopy's gravestone is 1910, so the events in the novel should span twenty years. However, this appears to be contradicted by the fact that the narrator, Finbarr, is still at school when Collopy dies, which is highly unlikely, as he should be twenty-four years old.
Major themes
''The Hard Life'' is pervaded by an atmosphere of squalor and despair. The Dublin that the boys inhabit is a decaying city and they are brought up in a broken family. Much of the satirical humour of the book targets the
Catholic Church in Ireland
, native_name_lang = ga
, image = Armagh, St Patricks RC cathedral.jpg
, imagewidth = 200px
, alt =
, caption = St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.
, abbreviation =
, type ...
and
parochial school
A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...
s: the theological disputes between Father Fahrt and Collopy are ridiculed, and often even the boys correct their misunderstandings. However, as Anne Clissmann has pointed out, O'Brien remained a faithful Catholic throughout his life and his lampoons can be read as being aimed at particular individuals and practices, rather than against the Church as a whole.
The book also pokes fun at education and how gullible people can be deceived by flowery prose. Manus is easily able to deceive the public when he sells pamphlets on diverse subjects, despite relying on repackaging information from library books. While Manus's scheme initially seems clever and attractive to the narrator, after Collopy's death he realises its
moral bankruptcy
Amorality is an absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality. Some simply refer to it as a case of not being moral or immoral. Amoral should not be confused with ''immoral'', which refers to an agent doing or thin ...
and rejects it.
Literary significance and reception
The first print run of ''The Hard Life'' sold out in Dublin in less than forty-eight hours, and initial reviews were very positive.
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, to whom the novel is dedicated, responded warmly to the dedication, and reviewers such as
Maurice Edelman
Israel Maurice Edelman (2 March 1911 – 14 December 1975) was a Wales-born British Labour Party politician and novelist who represented Coventry constituencies in the House of Commons for over 30 years.
Early life
Maurice Edelman was born i ...
and
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, d ...
compared the novel, favourably, to the works of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
. Other newspaper reviews praised the work for its "first-rate dialogue", its "wild, hilarious, irreverent comedy" and its "glorious version of the English language".
However, many recent critical studies of the novel have suggested that it is the weakest of O'Brien's novels.
Keith Donohue (2007) writes that, "in terms of sheer artistry, the novel is far more conservative" than O'Brien's early work and considers O'Brien's choice of themes "oddly oblique", given that (in his opinion) the prudish Catholicism that O'Brien was targeting was waning by the early 1960s anyway. Sue Asbee (1991) comments that "it is unlikely that the work would remain in print today" if it were not for the strength of O'Brien's other novels. Anne Clissmann (1975) suggests that the "lavatory humour" of the novel quickly loses its appeal and concludes that "''The Hard Life'' is ultimately unsatisfying to read because it lacks coherence and is too one-sided a vision of squalid reality."
References to other works
The ''Bildungsroman'' genre typically deals with a protagonist coming of age, and experiencing the joys and sorrows of growing up: education, finding a job, finding a partner. ''The Hard Life'' clearly mocks this tradition: Finbarr and Manus grow up in a squalid society that has little to offer them. Manus makes money and wins friends, but only by deception, and although the novel's conclusion shows Finbarr rejecting this path, it is uncertain how his future will develop.
''The Hard Life'' is often compared to the prose of James Joyce, particularly his collection of short stories ''
Dubliners
''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.
The stories were writt ...
.'' Sue Asbee suggests that such a comparison is "almost insulting" to Joyce, but accepts that both deal with the squalor of turn-of-the-century Dublin, alcoholism and the power of the Catholic Church. She notes that ''The Hard Life'', like most of the stories in ''Dubliners'', ends with a moment of enlightenment for the protagonist but without resolution of the problems. It is also noteworthy that the narrator falls in love with a girl called
Penelope
Penelope ( ; Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, ''Pēnelópeia'', or el, Πηνελόπη, ''Pēnelópē'') is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey.'' She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Pe ...
and compares her with the character of this name in Greek mythology, perhaps recalling Joyce's ''
Ulysses.''
Anne Clissmann points out that the device of using language pedantically as a source of humour has much in common with O'Brien's other novels, especially ''
The Dalkey Archive
''The Dalkey Archive'' is a 1964 novel by the Irish writer Flann O'Brien. It is his fifth and final novel, published two years before his death. It was adapted for the stage by Hugh Leonard in 1965 as ''The Saints Go Cycling In''. '', although, in her view, ''The Hard Life'' is less successful because it "gives the impression of trying to be ''too'' funny, ''too pedantic''.". Donoghue suggests that ''The Hard Life'' has more in common with O'Brien's journalism, written under the pen-name Myles na gCopaleen, than with his other novels.
References to history and geography
The novel is set amid the rise of
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...
, the
Gaelic revival
The Gaelic revival ( ga, Athbheochan na Gaeilge) was the late-nineteenth-century Romantic nationalism, national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including Irish folklore, folklore, Iri ...
, and increased calls for
Home Rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
and
Irish independence. Nationalist feeling does not feature prominently in the novel, but Collopy does comment on the rise of the Home Rule movement and remarks with pleasure that he sees young men playing "native games" rather than "this new golf", which "for pity's sake isn't a game at all". By placing these words in the mouth of one of his limited comic characters, Collopy, O'Brien is lightly mocking Irish identity by showing how it is based on anti-British sentiment as much as a positive affirmation of Irishness.
A number of real Dublin locations are mentioned in the novel. Collopy lives at Warrington Place, an extension of Herbert Place. As noted above, the two schools alluded to in the novel are real: Synge Street Christian Brothers Schools and Westland Row Christian Brothers School.
The Dublin Corporation, which rejects Collopy's plans for the installation of women's lavatories, was a historical body of city government which has now been renamed
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council wa ...
.
The closing chapters describe real locations in Rome and the Vatican. Manus buries Collopy in Rome at the
Campo Verano
The Campo Verano (Italian: ''Cimitero del Verano'') is a cemetery in Rome, Italy, founded in the early 19th century. The monumental cemetery is currently divided into sections: the Jewish cemetery, the Catholic cemetery, and the monument to the ...
cemetery and claims that the inscription he places on the headstone is an ironic joke on
Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...
' headstone. According to the novel, Keats' headstone reads "Here lies one whose name was writ ''on'' water" and Collopy's "Here lies one whose name was writ ''in'' water." (p. 602) The joke here refers to Collopy's devotion to lavatories: Collopy wished to his name written on the walls of the lavatories. However, either Manus or O'Brien himself is mistaken: Keats' headstone itself reads "Here lies one whose name was writ ''in'' water", a self-lacerating reference to the negative reviews that his poetry received.
Publication history
Details of the first edition: 1961, Dublin, Ireland: MacGibbon and Kee. , Pub. date 1 December 1961, Hardback.
The first American edition was published in 1962 by Pantheon Books.
There have been numerous editions by publishers based in Britain, Ireland and the United States since 1962. Most recently ''The Hard Life'' has been included in ''Flann O'Brien: The Complete Novels'', New York, Toronto and London: Everyman's Library, 2007. . Hardback.
At least one critic has posited that O'Brien was hoping that ''The Hard Life'' would be banned under the
Censorship of Publications Act because this would arouse curiosity about the book, and probably lead to increased publicity and sales. Censorship would also have given him the opportunity to enter into a legal battle against the government, with the possibility of further publicity.
[Clissmann, p. 292]
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hard Life
1961 novels
Irish bildungsromans
Novels by Flann O'Brien
Novels set in Dublin (city)
MacGibbon & Kee books