Since the 1950s Edna O'Brien has written many novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, television scripts, several works of nonfiction, and books of children's literature. O'Brien is a major contemporary writer who deserves to be included in any critical survey of modern Irish fiction. Yet, her work has been the subject of only one book-length study, published by Grace Eckley in 1974. Seamus Deane's A Short History of Irish Literature (1986) fails to mention her work, and in Declan Kiberd's Inventing Ireland (1995) there is only a brief reference to O'Brien. Although few would deny that O'Brien has been a pioneer among Irish woman writers, her critical reception over the years has been mixed with respect to her individual publications as well as her overall achievement.

O'Brien's work is remarkably unified due to her consistent fascination with a specific set of themes, all of which revolve around female identity. She has focused...