David Jones's The Grail Mass and Other Works

The poet and painter David Jones (1895-1974) was one of the most important and original voices in British modernism. His epic poem In Parenthesis was described by T.S. Eliot as ‘a work of genius’ and by Stephen Spender as ‘the most monumental work of poetic genius to come out of World War I’ and his many admirers included W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden and Herbert Read. Thomas Goldpaugh is Professor Emeritus of English at Marist College, USA. Jamie Callison is Associate Professor of British and American Literature at Nord University, Norway.

Introduction

Part One: The Grail Mass
A.) On Reading The Grail Mass: a commentary on the text’s development, fragmentation, and reconstruction
B.) Text of The Grail Mass

Part Two: A True Fragment, An Extraction, and A Variant
A.) The Roman Dinner Conversation (Section XIV)
A.1) A Commentary on The Roman Dinner Conversation
A.2) Text of The Roman Dinner Conversation
B.) Extraction from Keel Ram Stauros
B.1) A Commentary on The Extraction from Keel Ram Stauros
B.2) Text of The Extraction from Keel Ram Stauros
C.) The BBC Variant of The Hunt
C.1) A Commentary on the BBC variant of The Hunt
C.2) Text of the BBC variant of The Hunt

Part Three: Origins and Endings:
A.) The Book of Balaam’s Ass
A.1) A Commentary on The Book of Balaam’s Ass
A.2) Text of The Book of Balaam’s Ass
B.) The Absolom Mass
B.1) A Commentary on The Absolom Mass
B.2) Text of The Absolom Mass
C.) The Kensington Mass
C.1) A Commentary on The Kensington Mass
C.2) Text of The Kensington Mass
D.) Under Arcturus
D.1) A Commentary on Under Arcturus
D.2) Text of Under Arcturus

Notes

Afterword: The Grail Mass, The Anathemata, and The Sleeping Lord

Appendix A: The Editing of The Grail Mass

Bibliography
Index