An Béal Bocht
OCLC 31272718 | | |
Preceded by | The Third Policeman | |
---|---|---|
Followed by | The Hard Life |
An Béal Bocht (The Poor Mouth) is a 1941 novel in Irish by Flann O'Brien, published under the pseudonym "Myles na gCopaleen". It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century. An English translation by Patrick C. Power appeared in 1973. Stan Gebler Davies wrote: "The Poor Mouth is wildly funny, but there is at the same time always a sense of black evil. Only O'Brien's genius, of all the writers I can think of, was capable of that mixture of qualities."[1]
Background
The book is a kindly parody of the genre of
The Irish expression "to put on the poor mouth" (Irish: an béal bocht a chur ort) is mildly pejorative and refers to the practice, often associated with peasant farmers, of exaggerating the direness of one's situation, particularly financially, to evoke sympathy, charity and perhaps the forbearance of creditors and landlords or generosity of customers. The title may also be a parody [citation needed] of that of the Irish language reader An Saol Mór (The Great Life)[2] (in Irish, béal and saol are near-rhymes). The title is, perhaps, more likely to be a parody on 'An Béal Beo' (The Living Tongue) by Tomas Ó Máille, published by An Gúm in 1936.
One of the recurring figures of speech in the book is the line from Ó Criomhthain's An t-Oileánach, ...mar ná beidh ár leithéidí arís ann, "...for our likes will not be (seen) again"; variations of it appear throughout An Béal Bocht.[3]
All of O'Nolan's other novels were published under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien; it is the only one for which he used the "Myles na gCopaleen" pseudonym that he was then using for his celebrated
Plot
An Béal Bocht is set in Corca Dhorcha, (Corkadoragha, Corkadorkey) (a parody of
Adaptations
An adaptation of An Béal Bocht by Sean A O'Briain was performed for the first time in the Damer Theatre, Dublin on 31 January 1967 by An Cumann Gaelach from University College Dublin.[6] It was also part of The University Drama Festival in Galway in February 1967. On Wednesday, 26 July 1967 the play opened in The Peacock Theatre, Dublin and was the very first production in the theatre.[7] It ran for only three days and closed abruptly. Due to a disagreement between Brian O'Nualain's widow and the book publishers The Abbey Theatre decided to pull the play.
The book was adapted for stage by Paul Lee and first presented in the pub An Béal Bocht, Charlemont Street, Dublin, for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1989, directed by Ronan Smith.[8]
Irish filmmaker Tom Collins adapted and directed an animated version of the book, which was first shown (outside of festivals) on TG4 on Christmas Day 2017 and features the voices of Owen McDonnell and Donncha Crowley. The artwork was done by John McCloskey, whose graphic novel adaptation based on Collins' screenplay was published in 2012 by Cló Mhaigh Eo.[9]
Notes
- Evening Standard.
- ^ Mac Síthigh, T., An Saol Mór: Láimhleabhar Ghnátheolais ar Shaol an Lae Inniu: M.H. Mac an Ghoill agus a Mhac Teo.
- ^ na gCopaleen 1992, p. 9 & passim
- ^ O'Brien 1988, p. 3
- ^ O'Brien 1996, p. 7
- ^ "An Béal Bocht". PlayographyIreland. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ^ "An Beal Bocht 1967 (Peacock) | Abbey Archives | Abbey Theatre - Amharclann na Mainistreach". Abbey Theatre.
- ^ "MusicLee.ie". www.musiclee.ie.
- ^ "An Béal Bocht". Cló Mhaigh Eo. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017.
References
- na gCopaleen, Myles, An Béal Bocht, Third Edition, Dolmen Press, Dublin, 1964.
- na gCopaleen, Myles(1992), An Béal Bocht, Cork: Mercier Press .
- O'Brien, Flann (1974), The Poor Mouth, translated by Power, Patrick C., illustrated by Steadman, Ralph, New York: Viking
- ISBN 0-586-08748-6
- ISBN 978-1-56478-091-1
External links
- Gaelically Gaelic, essay featuring excerpts Archived 15 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Markus, Radvan (2018). “The Prison of Language: Brian O’Nolan, An Béal Bocht, and Language Determinism.” The Parish Review 4.1: 29–38. available in open access