A Route to Modernism - (Hardy, Lawrence, Woolf) by R Sumner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The question 'What is modernism?' has provoked intense critical discussion. A Route to Modernism explores this area; it focuses on the strange and dangerous journey taken by Hardy, Lawrence and Woolf towards unknown regions of the mind and the universe. In a discussion of these novelists, both individually and in relation to one another, a radical reconsideration of modernism is developed. Woolf envisaged her contemporaries 'flashing past on another railway line'. A Route to Modernism shows the hypothetical train of Hardy, Lawrence and Woolf not following an existing track but tunnelling beneath surfaces, following routes which are 'spasmodic, fragmentary', sometimes taking off like a rocket into the cosmos. Their fragmented, modernist works deny us 'the comfort of ... a single meaning, either in works of art or in the world'. This book offers new approaches to modernism, while insisting on books being left 'open - no conclusion come to '.

Review Quotes

'Rosemary Sumner's close reading of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf as companions in innovation makes us rethink glib distinctions between the Victorian and the modern novel, discover new definitions of modernism and appreciate afresh the intelligent, original and radical imagination of Thomas Hardy.' - Barbara Hardy, Professor Emeritus, University of London

'Rosemary Sumner has assembled an unusual grouping of authors to offer a fresh route into modernism. In a multi-faceted argument, she links Hardy even to later developments such as surrealism and Samuel Beckett, and brings out Hardy's own startling, jagged originality. In contrast to much philosophical debate around modernism, this study brings out less-noticed commonalities of spirit, theme and language by staying close to its texts. The value of this study lies in its constantly shifting comparisons, its exemplary readings, and its ready accessibility to students'. - Michael Bell, Professor of English, University of Warwick

'...provides many insightful close readings which indeed lure us back to the original works themselves...' - English Language Teaching

About the Author

ROSEMARY SUMNER, prior to her retirement, was a senior lecturer in English at Goldsmith College, London University (1959-89). Her previous works include Thomas Hardy: Psychological Novelist, William Golding's `The Spire', and essays in various collections and academic journals.