QuotesCosmos
"Is 'August' a Wicked Book", The Guardian (8 October 1965), p. 5
• Speaking in Dublin to promote her novel August Is a Wicked Month which was then on limited sale in the city's bookshops.
“

[On the banning of (her then) four novels in Ireland] I believe that mental disturbance by literature is a healthy and invigorating thing. We have plenty of comfortable and easy prose all around us, but it's by abrasion that people's prejudices are aroused.

— Edna O'Brien

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "[On the banning of (her then) four novels in Ireland] I believe that mental disturbance by literature is a healthy and invigorating thing. We have plenty of comfortable and easy prose all around us, but it's by abrasion that people's prejudices are aroused." in the context of ""Is 'August' a Wicked Book", The Guardian (8 October 1965), p. 5
• Speaking in Dublin to promote her novel August Is a Wicked Month which was then on limited sale in the city's bookshops." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Edna O'Brien" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Edna O'Brien#invigorating#disturbance#comfortable#literature#prejudices#abrasion#banning#ireland#believe#healthy#peoples
Edna O

About Edna O'Brien

Josephine Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer and playwright, who was resident in the United Kingdom from the late-1950s. Her first seven novels were banned in Ireland on publication, but she found an appreciative audience in her adopted country and in the United States.