At Swim-Two-Birds

At Swim-Two-Birds (1939) is an experimental comic novel, with elements of magical realism, written by Irish author Brian O’Nolan under the pseudonym Flann O’Brien. The novel portrays an interconnected series of plots in which a group of fictional characters conspire against the author who created them, all as part of a story written by a lazy student in Dublin. Many have heralded the novel as one of the most important of the 20th century, and numerous projects have attempted to adapt it for other media.

This guide uses an e-book version of the 2000 Penguin Books edition.

Plot Summary

The main plot of At Swim-Two-Birds tells the story of an unnamed student who lives with his uncle in Dublin while studying literature. Much to his uncle’s annoyance, the student spends most of his time locked away in his room. In addition to occasionally attending lectures and regularly drinking large quantities of alcohol with his friends, the student is writing a novel. He asserts his beliefs about how literature should operate, referencing his knowledge of ancient Irish folk stories to demonstrate different styles of storytelling. The characters he invents provide the interconnected strands of the rest of the narrative.

The student describes three plots he could use to introduce his novel. The first story involves a Pooka (a type of shapeshifting spirit from Irish folklore) named Fergus MacPhellimey. The second involves a young man named John Furriskey who is a fictional character in a novel written by a man named Dermot Trellis. The third story involves Finn Mac Cool, a hero from traditional Irish folklore. The student wants to begin his novel with all three stories because he doesn’t believe that novels should be limited to only one beginning.

The student’s life becomes the novel’s framing device. His uncle criticizes him for spending so long in his room rather than at the university. The uncle, who is unmarried, is a clerk at a Dublin brewery. He considers himself an upstanding Christian man and is careful to ensure that he maintains his reputation in the community. He worries that his nephew’s laziness reflects poorly on his character. The student resents these criticisms but admits that he spends so long in his room that he has acquired a distinct smell. Any time that he does leave the house, the student frequents pubs with his friends and drinks to the point of making himself sick. Occasionally, he works on his novel and reads excerpts to his friends.

As the student reads from his manuscript, the three stories become intertwined. John Furriskey realizes that he was born as an adult man because he was created by Trellis. Now, Trellis has gathered all his fictional creations in Dublin’s Red Swan Hotel so that he can keep an eye on them. When Trellis is awake, the characters must follow the instructions that he lays down in the cheap Western novels he writes. This means that men like Furriskey must commit crimes per Trellis’s instructions. Shortly after coming into being, Furriskey meets two other characters named Paul Shanahan and Antony Lamont. Like Furriskey, they exist at Trellis’s mercy and resent the author’s control over their lives. They begin to plot against Trellis. They use a sleeping draught to make Trellis spend increasingly more time asleep, which allows them to live their lives as they please. Lamont and Shanahan use their free time to go out drinking, while Furriskey settles down with a woman and gets married. He prefers the domestic life with his wife to the lurid criminal activities that Trellis makes him undertake.

Meanwhile, Trellis creates a female character named Sheila Lamont. He plans for Furriskey to seduce Sheila but is so taken with the beautiful character he created that he rapes and impregnates her. Sheila gives birth to a boy named Orlick but dies in childbirth. Fergus the Pooka meets a fairy named the Good Fairy, and they travel together to Dublin. The two characters wrestle for influence over Orlick’s life. On the way to the Red Swan, they meet the other characters, including Finn Mac Cool and Mad Sweeny. After a game of cards, Fergus wins the right to influence Orlick’s life. Orlick seems to inherit his father’s talent for fiction. The other characters persuade Orlick to take revenge against his father by writing a new novel to trap Trellis inside. They use Orlick’s writing to inflict substantial pain and punishment on Trellis; eventually, they decide to put Trellis on trial for the influence he has held over their lives.

Just as Trellis’s trial reaches its climax, however, the student pauses the narrative. He returns home from university after passing all his exams. He tells his uncle the good news and is surprised by his uncle’s sincere congratulations and praise. The student then returns to his story: A maid in the hotel burns Trellis’s writing by mistake, freeing him from the trial and the judgment of his own creations.