One of The Sunday Times' (U.K.) Books of the Year "Garnett's life will not need to be written again." —Andrew Morton, Times Literary Supplement A penetrating biography of the most important English-language editor of the early twentieth century During the course of a career spanning half a century, Edward Garnett—editor, critic, and reader for hire—would become one of the most influential men in twentieth-century English literature. Known for his incisive criticism and unwavering conviction in matters of taste, Garnett was responsible for identifying and nurturing the talents of a generation of the greatest writers in the English language, from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy, Henry Green to Edward Thomas, T. E. Lawrence to D. H. Lawrence. In An Uncommon Reader, Helen Smith brings to life Garnett’s intimate and at times stormy relationships with those writers. (“I have always suffered a little from a sense of injustice at your hands,” Galsworthy complained in a letter.) All turned to Garnett for advice and guidance at critical moments in their careers, and their letters and diaries—in which Garnett often features as a feared but deeply admired protagonist—tell us not only about their creative processes, but also about their hopes and fears. Beyond his connections to some of the greatest minds in literary history, we also come to know Edward as the husband of Constance Garnett—the prolific translator responsible for introducingTolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov to an English language readership—and as the father of David “Bunny” Garnett, who would make a name for himself as a writer and publisher. “Mr. Edward Garnett occupies a unique position in the literary history of our age,” E. M. Forster wrote. “He has done more than any living writer to discover and encourage the genius of other writers, and he has done it without any desire for personal prestige.” An absorbing and masterfully researched portrait of a man who was a defining influence on the modern literary landscape, An Uncommon Reader asks us to consider the multifaceted meaning of literary genius.

James Joyce is located between, and constructed within, two worlds: the national and international, the political and cultural systems of colonialism and postcolonialism. Joyce's political project is to construct a postcolonial contra-modernity: to write the incommensurable differences of colonial, postcolonial, and gendered subjectivities, and, in doing so, to reorient the axis of power and knowledge. What Joyce dramatizes in his hybrid writing is the political and cultural remainder of imperial history or patriarchal canons: a remainder that resists assimilation into the totalizing narratives of modernity. Through this remainder - of both politics and the psyche - Joyce reveals how a minority culture can construct political and personal agency. Joyce: Feminism / Post / Colonialism, edited by Ellen Carol Jones, bears witness to the construction of that agency, tracing the inscription of the racial and sexual other in colonial, nationalist, and postnational representations, deciphering the history of the possible. Contributors are Gregory Castle, Gerald Doherty, Enda Duffy, James Fairhall, Peter Hitchcock, Ellen Carol Jones, Ranjana Khanna, Patrick McGee, Marilyn Reizbaum, Susan de Sola Rodstein, Carol Shloss, and David Spurr.

What is it like to be in the I.R.A. - or at their mercy? This fascinating study explores the lives and deaths of the enemies and victims of the County Cork I.R.A. between 1916 and 1923 - the most powerful and deadly branch of the I.R.A. during one of the most turbulent periods in twentieth-century Ireland. These years saw the breakdown of the British legal system and police authority, the rise of republican violence, and the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale guerilla war, leading to a wave of riots, ambushes, lootings, and reprisal killings, with civilians forming the majority of victims in this unacknowledged civil war. Religion may have provided the starting point for the conflict, but class prejudice, patriotism, and personal grudges all fuelled the development and continuation of widespread violence. Using an unprecedented range of sources - many of them only recently made public - Peter Hart explores the motivation behind such activity. His conclusions not only reveal a hidden episode of Ireland's troubled past but provide valuable insights into the operation of similar terrorist groups today.

This is a comprehensive study of one of the most influential literary groups in post-independence Ireland: the writers and editors of the literary magazine The Bell. Seán O'Faoláin and the generation of writers that matured in the shadows of W. B. Yeats and James Joyce dominated the literary landscape in Ireland in the build-up to, and during, the Second World War. This is their story, as told through the history of one journal: The Bell. Working with previously unpublished archival material, this study looks to illuminate the relationships, disputes and loves of the contributors to Ireland's most important 'little magazine' under the guiding influence of its founding editor, Seán O'Faoláin. In doing so, it sheds new light on O'Faoláin's early influences and his attitude towards the Church and the state in Ireland.