'The Poor Mouth'

The Poor Mouth was originally published under the pseudonym "Myles na gCopaleen." The man behind the pen was Brian O'Nolan.

But "Myles na gCopaleen" was only one of many pseudonyms that O'Nolan would use through his varied and extensive career as a writer.

When The Poor Mouth was published in English, it was under one of his other nom de plumes -- and probably his most famous -- Flann O'Brien.

The story is a mix of humor and social commentary. Of course, the humor is tempered only by the fact that its based on how stinking poor these people were. We laugh because we kind of think they're laughing, too. Our man thankfully goes to prison to avoid the desperate poverty of his home village. If that's not funny, nothing is.

The main theme is language. In it, our hero is caned mercilessly at the first day of school after presenting himself under his Gaelic name. At other points, there's a Gaelic-speaking meeting, of sorts, where they talk about saving their mother tongue.

The Irish are steadfast about keeping their language. Maybe more so than any other culture. Of course, how many cultures have had their cultural identity totally taken by another.

Oh. That happens all the time. My bad.

O'Brien has a lot more on this list. I hope to get to it sooner than later.