Reading Order
Flannery O'ConnorFlannery O'Connor's Fiction Reading Order
Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952) is the most disturbing and most original first novel in American postwar fiction — Hazel Motes, a young veteran from Tennessee who founds the Church Without Christ and tries to escape the Jesus he has been fleeing all his life. O'Connor, a devout Catholic from Milledgeville, Georgia, wrote fiction that has been called 'grotesque' in the southern gothic tradition — her characters are marked by violent grace, by sudden death, by the action of a God they don't believe in or don't understand. Wise Blood has no sequels; The Violent Bear It Away (1960) is her second and final novel. A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965, posthumous) are the story collections that represent O'Connor at her most concentrated and most celebrated.
Where to start
Wise Blood
Complete Flannery O'Connor Book List
- 1Buy
Wise Blood
Flannery O'Connor·1952·The main novel — Hazel Motes, the Church Without Christ, Enoch Emery and his 'wise blood,' the race toward nihilism that is also a race toward God. - 2Buy
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Connor·1955·The first story collection — "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," "Good Country People," the essential O'Connor short fiction, required reading alongside the novels. - 3Buy
The Violent Bear It Away
Flannery O'Connor·1960·The second and final novel — Francis Tarwater fleeing his great-uncle's prophetic call, the same O'Connor territory in a denser and more concentrated form. - 4Buy
Everything That Rises Must Converge
Flannery O'Connor·1965·The second story collection, published posthumously — "Everything That Rises Must Converge," "Parker's Back," the late O'Connor stories that many readers consider her finest work.
Flannery O'Connor — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wise Blood autobiographical?
Not directly — Hazel Motes is very different from O'Connor herself. But O'Connor's Catholic faith, her Southern Georgia world, and her sense of grace as violent and sudden are deeply personal.
Do I need to be Catholic to appreciate O'Connor?
No — though understanding that O'Connor sees her grotesque characters as moving toward or fleeing from grace helps. Many non-religious readers find O'Connor's work powerful precisely because her violent, comic, disturbing vision of the South doesn't require accepting her theology.
Which O'Connor should I read first — Wise Blood or the stories?
Most readers find the stories the better entry point — 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' is her most famous work and is typically the best introduction. But Wise Blood is the more sustained achievement; either works as a starting point.
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