AWWW recently discussed how 'Of an evening' and like phrases are used to indicate recurrence of events. Though the 'of' had seemed to be the feature of interest , apparently the 'a' alone can work to similar and just as intriguing effects: this from Colm Tóibín's new book:
She shared a room in a flat in Herbert Street and went out with her friends on Friday and Saturday nights and on a Sunday night she drove back to Enniscorthy.
-a nice way to say that out of a recurring set of events , there is a subset that is a little less frequent.
I reread this post several times trying to get the point (which seems a bit fuzzy). Even checked the original source to make sure it was verbatim and punctuated the way the Tóibín wrote it. It was. But I do not see your point about "recurrence."
I can read that passage either of two ways ...
1. She shared a room in a flat in Herbert Street and went out with her friends on Friday and Saturday nights and on [one particular] Sunday night she drove back to Enniscorthy.
2. She shared a room in a flat in Herbert Street and went out with her friends on Friday and Saturday nights and [on every] Sunday night she drove back to Enniscorthy.
Unclear to me what the author meant by the context. Seems it could be either. If I meant the former, I'd put a comma after "nights." If I meant the latter, I'd drop the "a" before "Sunday." Could you expand a bit on what you meant by your last line?
Robert said: a nice way to say that out of a recurring set of events , there is a subset that is a little less frequent.
I read it heimhenge's second option. Though I'm not sure how the example relates to 'of an evening.' I can say this though: 'of an evening' is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
More texts, better context:
Every Friday at four Elizabeth Gibney left the office and drove to Dublin. She shared a room in a flat in Herbert Street and went out with her friends on Friday and Saturday nights and on a Sunday night she drove back to Enniscorthy. On Saturday afternoons she went shopping in Grafton street.
The Sunday thing is placed right in there among the several routines, so it's one of them, a routine itself, not just one Sunday. And yet it's given special treatment, to look different from the others. It's not that way accidentally; he's saying the Sunday return trip does not always happen (perhaps because the woman has a room in town), or not always that late. So effortless and smooth for all that.
I don't find it effortless and smooth. More like confused and confusing.