Mary Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners

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At her death in 1964, Flannery O’Connor left behind a valuable group of unpublished essays and lectures as well as several published critical articles. The insightful, often poignant writings were selected by her literary executor Robert Fitzgerald and his wife Sally and published in 1969. Like her 31 short stories and two novels, the compositions are characterized by a directness and an understated simplicity that nonetheless reveal her analytical wit, her deep understanding of Catholic faith, and her sense of the absurd embedded in daily life.

As friends of the author, Sally and Robert Fitzgerald took on the job of editing not as professional scholars, but as admiring amateurs. Moreover, they admit to rewriting certain …

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Citation: Castle, Alfred. "Mystery and Manners". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 January 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10266, accessed 28 March 2024.]

10266 Mystery and Manners 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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