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.

An indispensable addition to the Jones corpus. It is also a deeply impressive textual achievement, and a brilliantly realized and instructive engagement with a rich and complex literary archive … The fullness of Jones’s vision on the page is honoured, and poetic practices which might seem esoteric are validated and released for the reader’s appreciation ... [Goldpaugh and Callison's] curiosity and authority as editors shines through with the same force whether they are describing Jones’s use of pencil, ink or biro, or revisiting the ambiguous and provocative issue of his political attitudes.

• IntroductionPart One: The Grail MassA.) On Reading The Grail Mass: a commentary on the text’s development, fragmentation, and reconstructionB.) Text of The Grail MassPart Two: A True Fragment, An Extraction, and A VariantA.) The Roman Dinner Conversation (Section XIV)A.1) A Commentary on The Roman Dinner ConversationA.2) Text of The Roman Dinner ConversationB.) Extraction from Keel Ram StaurosB.1) A Commentary on The Extraction from Keel Ram StaurosB.2) Text of The Extraction from Keel Ram StaurosC.) The BBC Variant of The HuntC.1) A Commentary on the BBC variant of The HuntC.2) Text of the BBC variant of The HuntPart Three: Origins and Endings:A.) The Book of Balaam’s AssA.1) A Commentary on The Book of Balaam’s AssA.2) Text of The Book of Balaam’s AssB.) The Absolom MassB.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 ArcturusD.2) Text of Under Arcturus NotesAfterword: The Grail Mass, The Anathemata, and The Sleeping LordAppendix A: The Editing of The Grail MassBibliographyIndex