7.2 /10 1 Votes
Country Ireland Publication date April 16, 1970 Pages 223 pages Originally published 16 April 1970 Publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson | 3.6/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print ISBN 0-297-00027-6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Edna O'Brien books House of Splendid Isolation, Wild Decembers, Casualties of Peace, Down by the River, August Is a Wicked Month | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Pagan Place is a 1970 novel by Irish writer Edna O'Brien. The book was first published on April 16, 1970 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and follows a young girl in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1972 A Pagan Place was adapted into a stage production, which received mixed reviews.
Contents
Style
A Pagan Place is narrated in second person in its entirely. As Shahriyar Mansouri argues, such a "melodic" narratorial voice, presented through the mouthpiece of second-person narrator signifies a lost sense of identity and independence for the post-independence Irish women. The only occasion when the narratorial voice appropriates the first person pronoun 'I', indicating its presence and self-recognition, comes at the end of the novel, where the unnamed, young female protagonist embarks on her journey of formation.
Reception
The Sydney Morning Herald praised the book's narrative, saying that it "flows along absorbingly without a line of direct dialogue".