Order of Flannery O’Connor Books

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) was an American author of Southern Gothic fiction. Her work is marked by sharp moral vision, grotesque imagery, and characters caught at the crossroads of violence, grace, and revelation. O’Connor’s distinctive blend of theological inquiry, regional detail, and unsentimental wit has made her one of the most influential short story writers of the twentieth century.

Flannery O’Connor made her debut as a novelist in 1952 with Wise Blood. Below is a list of Flannery O’Connor’s books in order of when they were originally released:

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Faber Stories Books

Publication Order of Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith Books

Publication Order of The Dark Descent Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

If You Like Flannery O’Connor Books, You’ll Love…

• William Faulkner
• Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Graham Greene

Flannery O’Connor Synopses: Wise Blood is the debut novel of author Flannery O’Connor. After being discharged from service in the Second World War, Hazel Motes takes up residence in Taulkinham, Tennessee. Directionless, Motes meets a number of strange locals, and his encounters with them, along with his growing mental instability, lead him to found the Church of God Without Christ in which he preaches his disjointed message about atheism.

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor is a standalone novel. In this stark and unsettling story, the orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousin, the schoolteacher Rayber, struggle against the prophecy left behind by their domineering uncle – a prophecy insisting that Tarwater is destined to become a prophet and baptize Rayber’s young son, Bishop. What follows is a tense, spiralling conflict in which Tarwater battles the pull of an inherited faith and the insistent voices urging him toward a divine calling, while Rayber tries to anchor him in a more rational, modern world.

Each man lays claim to Bishop’s future, wrestling not only with one another but with the shadow of the dead uncle who shaped them both.

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is Flannery O’Connor’s most celebrated and most frequently discussed story. She underscored its importance by naming her first collection after it and by choosing it again and again for public readings. The tale is unforgettable – at once gripping, darkly comic, and shocking – as a family’s ordinary road trip collides with violence and sudden death. More than any other piece in her body of work, this story fuses the humor, brutality, and spiritual urgency that define O’Connor’s fiction.

This casebook offers a rich framework for studying the story. It includes an editor’s introduction, a detailed chronology of O’Connor’s life, the authoritative text of the story, and a selection of O’Connor’s own comments and letters about it. Critical essays spanning more than two decades present a range of approaches – formalistic, thematic, deconstructionist – all accessible to undergraduate readers, while the introduction points students toward additional avenues of study. Suitable for newcomers and advanced readers alike, this casebook provides a deep and engaging entry point into the work of one of America’s most distinctive modern writers.

The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O’Connor is a non-fiction book. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Flannery O’Connor wrote more than a hundred book reviews for two Catholic diocesan newspapers in Georgia. Collected here in full, these pieces nearly double the number previously available in print and form a substantial body of primary material within the O’Connor canon.

Across these reviews, the same unmistakable personality that animates her fiction and lectures comes through – the sharp precision, the dry humor, and the rare ability to illuminate difficult or obscure truths with clarity and grace. Together, the reviews and accompanying letters reveal an artist whose voice remains singular, incisive, and deeply compelling.