Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930

If one sums up Calinescu's book on modernity and this very complete anthology, one has probably the best combination to undertand this movement. Bradbury and McFarlane select some of the best examples I have seen for the topic and give a very clear perspective on the topic. Readers of some of the most important authors of the history of literature, like Joyce or Baudelaire, will find a clear contextualization based not on contemporary interpretations but by the critics of the time.

This collection of critical essays does much to clarify the readers understanding and enhance one's appreciation of the period that produced such great works as Ulysses and The Waste Land. By laying a ground work that focuses on historical and geographical scholarship and the individual movements that make up Modernism the editors have succeeded in portraying Modernism in all of its diversity. This book is essential to those who want a good, non-reductive introduction a great literary movement.