JAMES JOYCE HIS FIRST FORTY YEARS by HERBERT S. GORMAN Author of "The Fool of Love," "The Barcarole NEW YORK THE VIKING PRESS AND B. W. HUEBSCH 0:31462-005 It should be explained immediately that this book is more expositional than critical. Its primary purpose is to furnish an idea of what James Joyce has done in letters with particular emphasis on "Ulysses." That astonishing volume is so difficult to procure and yet so widely discussed that there would seem to be a place for a short study which would outline just what it is and what it attempts to do. And in order to understand the place which "Ulysses" occupies in contemporary letters one must also understand the steps by which Joyce approached it and, so far as a stranger may intimate, the attitude of mind which brought it into being. Therefore, the reader will discover the chapters on "Ulysses" to be more than is usually the case in critical studies a presentation of subject-matter. The criticism follows the exposition and acts as a corollary to it. In a work that is not definitive it is, of course, evident that many attractive bypaths of conjecture have been ignored. These must be left for other critics. The author should also explain that his familiarity with Dublin is mainly a matter of documents, friendly conversations and letters. A debt of gratitude for generous aid and suggestion is acknowledged here to Mary M. Colum, Padraic Colum, Ezra Pound, and Harriet Weaver of The Egoist Press. HERBERT S. GORMAN |