Mystery & manners - Flannery O'Connor

At her death in 1964, O'Connor left behind a body of unpublished essays
and lectures as well as a number of critical articles that had appeared
in scattered publications during her too-short lifetime. The keen
writings comprising Mystery and Manners, selected and edited by
O'Connor's lifelong friends Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, are
characterized by the directness and simplicity of the author's style, a
fine-tuned wit, understated perspicacity, and profound faith.

The
book opens with "The King of the Birds," her famous account of raising
peacocks at her home in Milledgeville, Georgia. Also included are: three
essays on regional writing, including "The Fiction Writer and His
Country" and "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction"; two
pieces on teaching literature, including "Total Effect and the 8th
Grade"; and four articles concerning the writer and religion, including
"The Catholic Novel in the Protestant South." Essays such as "The Nature
and Aim of Fiction" and "Writing Short Stories" are widely seen as
gems.

This bold and brilliant essay-collection is a must for all readers, writers, and students of modern American literature.