Little Review Ulysses

and#8220;I believe that it is in our interest as individuals to become crafty readers, and in the interest of the nation to educate citizens in the craft of reading. The craft, not the art. . . . This book is about that craft.and#8221;and#8212;from the Introduction

This latest book from the well-known literary critic Robert Scholes presents his thoughtful exploration of the craft of reading. He deals with reading not as an art or performance given by a virtuoso reader, but as a craft that can be studied, taught, and learned. Those who master the craft of reading, Scholes contends, will justifiably take responsibility for the readings they produce and the texts they choose to read.

Scholes begins with a critique of the New Critical way of reading (and#8220;bad for poets and poetry and really terrible for students and teachers of poetryand#8221;), using examples of poems by various writers, in particular Edna St. Vincent Millay. He concludes with a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the fundamentalist way of reading texts regarded as sacred.

To explain and clarify the approach of the crafty reader, the author analyzes a wide-ranging selection of texts by figures at the margins of the literary and cultural canon, including Norman Rockwell, Anaand#239;s Nin, Dashiell Hammett, and J. K. Rowling. Throughout his discussion Scholes emphasizes how concepts of genre affect the reading process and how they may work to exclude certain texts from the cultural canon and curriculum.

"Paradoxy of Modernism develops a powerful and persuasive new understanding of paradox and pleasure in modernist art and literature; it is a must-read for modernists."and#8212;James Phelan, editor of Narrative and author of Living to Tell About It

and#8220;Modernism in the Magazines is at once a clarion call for scholars and students of modernism to transform the field through periodical studies and to harness the as-yet under-utilized potential of digital databases, but it is also a refreshingly useful guidebook showing readers how to do just that. There truly is no other book out there like this.and#8221;and#8212;Mark Morrisson, Pennsylvania State University

and#8220;Scholes and Wulfman have produced a masterful introduction to modernist periodical studies that will be an invaluable resource for students as well as to scholars of Anglo-American literary modernism.and#8221;and#8212;Ann Ardis, University of Delaware

"Modernism in the Magazines sets the course for the emergent field of modern periodical studies and will become essential reading for the revitalized study and teaching of modernism."and#8212;Sean Latham, University of Tulsa

"Having recently woken up the editor of a literary magazine, I found myself riveted by this book. . . . I suspect evenand#160;nonprofessionals will enjoy Pound's original articles, which Scholes and Wulfman reprint in their entiretyand#8212;and will be charmed by the author's unabashed pleasure in old ephemera. . . . It is a melancholy truth that most ads age better than most poems. Scholes and Wulfman embrace that truth without holding it against either kind of communication. They don't make us choose between loving the moderns and understanding how they paid the bills."and#8212;Lorin Stein, Harpers

"[A]n introduction to the field that is ideal for teaching (and priced so that it can be used in the classroom) as well as useful to scholars with an interest in periodical studies. . . . [an] indispensible volume."and#8212;Barbara Green, Clio

andquot;The Little Review andquot;Ulyssesandquot; recreates the astonishing experience of reading the Ulysses installments before U.S. censors shut them down. Gaipa, Latham and Scholes are deft guides to a masterpiece in the making. Itandrsquo;s indispensable reading for any serious Joycean.andquot;andmdash;Kevin Birmingham, author of The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyceandrsquo;s Ulysses

andldquo;This canny edition of Ulysses episodes from The Little Review throws revealing light on transatlantic modernism by tracing the intertwined histories of a seminal journal and Joyceandrsquo;s masterpiece. It reconstructs serial reading by embedding the early versions in their periodical and period contexts while sending us to the 1922 Ulysses with refreshed vision for those who already know it or with sharpened vision for first-time readers.andrdquo;andmdash;John Paul Riquelme, Boston University

andquot;More than the shock of recognition, there is a jolt of pleasure, indistinguishable from wonder, in encountering Ulysses as its first intrigued readers would have in the proudly modern pages of The Little Review.andquot;andmdash;Maria DiBattista, Princeton University

andldquo;At last, the very first published version of Ulysses seen by readers, as it appeared in that courageous journal The Little Review. Beautiful presented, its context clearly explained. This is a fascinating vision of the greatest twentieth-century novel in its first public appearance. The excitement radiates off every page. Here is a wondrous artworkandrsquo;s first outing, skillfully returned to the world.andrdquo; andmdash;Enda Duffy, University of California Santa Barbara

andldquo;A beautifully edited volumeandnbsp;that allows contemporary readers to experienceandnbsp;Ulyssesandnbsp;as it was first published in serialization, warts and all.andnbsp;The scholarship is meticulous, helpful, and unobtrusive.andrdquo; andmdash;Sam Slote, Trinity College Dublin

andldquo;A treasure - theandnbsp;Ulyssesandnbsp;that readers first saw and that a court banned,andnbsp;beautifully presented to help us encounter this work inandnbsp;progress as it unfoldedandnbsp;in theandnbsp;Little Review.andrdquo; andmdash;Michael Groden, author of andldquo;Ulyssesandrdquo; in Progress and andldquo;Ulyssesandrdquo; in Focus

In this lively, personal book, Robert Scholes intervenes in ongoing discussions about modernism in the arts during the crucial half-century from 1895 to 1945. While critics of and apologists for modernism have defined modern art and literature in terms of binary oppositionsand#151;high/low, old/new, hard/soft, poetry/rhetoricand#151;Scholes contends that these distinctions are in fact confused and misleading. Such oppositions are instances of and#147;paradoxyand#8221;and#151;an apparent clarity that covers real confusion.

Closely examining specific literary texts, drawings, critical writings, and memoirs, Scholes seeks to complicate the neat polar oppositions attributed to modernism. He argues for the rehabilitation of works in the middle ground that have been trivialized in previous evaluations, and he fights orthodoxy with such paradoxes as and#147;durable fluff,and#8221; and#147;formulaic creativity,and#8221; and and#147;iridescent mediocrity.and#8221; The book reconsiders major figures like James Joyce while underscoring the value of minor figures and addressing new attention to others rarely studied. It includes twenty-two illustrations of the artworks discussed. Filled with the observations of a personable and witty guide, this is a book that opens up for a readerand#8217;s delight the rich cultural terrain of modernism.

If modernism began in the magazines, as Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman argue, then the study of modern culture should begin with these publications. Scholes and Wulfmanand#8217;s radically inclusive approach not only considers the and#8220;littleand#8221; modernist magazines alongside the and#8220;bigand#8221; or mass magazines often dismissed as antithetical to modernismand#8217;s elite culture, but also insists that scholars must investigate their contents as a wholeand#8212;from poetry to advertisingand#8212;to appreciate their full significance. The bookand#8217;s appendix also reprints a previously uncollected critique of popular British magazines from 1917 and 1918 by Ezra Pound.

In this thoughtful exploration of the craft of reading, leading literary critic Robert Scholes urges us to become and#147;crafty readersand#8221;and#151;readers who employ all their faculties for knowing, remembering, imagining, and caring. Scholes explains this way of reading by analyzing a wide selection of texts by those at the margins of the literary and cultural canon, including Norman Rockwell, Anaand#239;s Nin, Dashiell Hammett, and J. K. Rowling.

James Joyceandrsquo;s Ulysses first appeared in print in the pages of an American avant-garde magazine, The Little Review, between 1918 and 1920. The novel many consider to be the most important literary work of the twentieth century was, at the time, deemed obscene and scandalous, resulting in the eventual seizure of The Little Review and the placing of a legal ban on Joyceandrsquo;s masterwork that would not be lifted in the United States until 1933. For the first time, The Little Review andldquo;Ulyssesandrdquo; brings together the serial installments of Ulysses to create a new edition of the novel, enabling teachers, students, scholars, and general readers to see how one of the previous centuryandrsquo;s most daring and influential prose narratives evolved, and how it was initially introduced to an audience who recognized its radical potential to transform Western literature. This unique and essential publication also includes essays and illustrations designed to help readers understand the rich contexts in which Ulysses first appeared and trace the complex changes Joyce introduced after it was banned.

Robert Scholes is Research Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. He is the author of many books of literary theory, among them The Rise and Fall of English, Protocols of Reading, Semiotics and Interpretation, Structuralism in Literature, Textual Power, and Hemingwayand#8217;s Genders (coauthor), all published by Yale University Press.