27 December 2019

Mansfield on Joyce

In a letter to the Times Literary Supplement (23-30 August 2019 edition), John Barnie of Aberystwyth draws attention to the draft letter Katherine Mansfield wrote and included in her 1922 journal, on James Joyce's Ulysses, which had been published in February of that year.

I must reply about Ulysses. I have been wondering what people are saying in England. It took me about a fortnight to wade through, but on the whole I'm dead against it. I suppose it was worth doing if everything is worth doing ... but that is certainly not what I want from literature. Of course, there are amazingly fine things in it, but I prefer to go without them than to pay that price. Not because I am shocked (though I am fearfully shocked, but that's "personal"; I suppose it's unfair to judge the book by that) but because I simply don't believe ... [and there the draft breaks off].

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