Flann obrien the third policeman original cover
The Third Policeman.
Cover painting by Nick Bantock with original price ofp to back....
The Third Policeman
1967 novel by Flann O'Brien
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien.
It was written in 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1966.
It was published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1967.[1][2]
Plot summary
The Third Policeman is set in rural Ireland and is narrated by a dedicated amateur scholar who studies de Selby, a scientist and philosopher.[3] The narrator, whose name the reader never learns, is orphaned at a young age.[4] At boarding school, he discovers the work of de Selby and becomes a fanatically dedicated student of it.
One night he breaks his leg under mysterious circumstances – "if you like, it was broken for me" – and he is ultimately fitted with a wooden leg to repla