Review of John Bolin, Beckett and the Modern Novel. Cambridge: University Press, 2013. Hardcover. xii+214. ISBN 978-1107029842. £50.0.

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This study attempts to present Molly Bloom, the major fem.ale character in Joyce's prose-satire, Ulysses, as an intentional fourfold corrective for the traditional interpretation of the female principle. Her speeches and actions are examined to reveal her positive significance as part of the Stephen-Molly-Bloom triad, and through her various manifestations of the female principle she comes to represent a major force in the world of Ulysses. Specifically, Molly's role as the new poetic muse and her ability to reinterpret both Christian and Eastern female religious figures are probed. Although Molly may be seen as a corrective on all four levels, she is considered here primarily concerning literal and anagogical significance.

The growth of an individual into mature selfhood is the primary basis of the Lawrentian relationship. Lawrence describes a mystical kind of rebirth of the self into a deeper level of the unconscious. He says that one should explore the impulses and desires of the unconscious in order to find a deeper, more fulfilled self. Ursula of The Rainbow and Paul of Sons and Lovers are the characters who most successfully begin this growth into separate selfhood. According to Lawrence the journey into the unconscious is to be accomplished through sensual experiences. He mistrusts the intellect because he feels that the mind distorts reality. The bodily sensations are more concrete, and therefore more real. Lawrence demonstrates in Walter Morel of Sons and Lovers, Birkin and Ursula of Women in Love, and Connie and Mellors of Lady Chatterley's Lover that spontaneous, sensual experiences are necessary to live a fully sensual life. For Lawrence, the failure to discover the deepest, sensual self results in the need to control others. Characters who embrace abstract intellectualism and modern industrialism are the ones who attempt to force every living thing into submission to their egos. The compulsion to dominate others gives the characters a temporary feeling of fulfillment but is ultimately destructive. Gertrude, Miriam, Gerald, and Hermione are destructive characters who strive to control others. They are weak and dependent, needing another person's strength of self to feel complete. The acknowledgement of a separate self is crucial to Lawrence's philosophy of relationships. According to his philosophy a person discovers the separate, fundamental self at the unconscious level through sensual experiences. Abstract intellectualism and industrialism are responsible for causing man's alienation from himself; his failure to discover and acknowledge a deeper self generates destructiveness which is manifested in his domination of other living beings.

Lewis repeatedly revealed himself to be concerned with effect: in his statement that he desired to increase effect by heightening the color of The Monk and in his statements concerning his goal in The Castle Spectre there is the recurrent theme of desire to horrify. This desire has been shown to grow out of the aesthetic ideal of sublimity which was developed in years preceding The Monk. The implicit defect in this concept is that it may be used to justify sensational works which lack lasting merit, as was largely the case with The Castle Spectre, not to mention the mass of chapbook romances and inferior plays which were produced at the tie. As has been shown, however, there have been many misconceptions which have grown up around Lewis, prejudicing his biography, and blocking a clear assessment of his literary worth. As has been shown also, Lewis displayed throughout his productions a versatility and occasional brilliance which cannot be attributed to temporary popular appeal.

An effort is made in this study to consider the important factors in the field of medicine that are repeatedly referred to in Shakespeare's plays: practitioners, diseases and infirmities, drugs and herbs, physiological processes of the body, and mental disturbances and psychological therapy. The purpose is to examine these extensive references to medical matters in the dramatist's comedies, tragedies, and histories and to show his profound knowledge in the field. Special emphasis is placed on the accuracy of his portrayals in depicting the true practice of medicine in the Elizabethan Age and his far-reaching vision in anticipating medical theories of later years.

As a social critic, Charles Dickens carries an attack against the mistreatment of children throughout his career. At first reacting in the defense of wronged children, he develops a view of the process of social breakdown that results from mistreating children. Adults fai3 in their duty to children because they fail to recognize the needs of children as children and even fail to recognize the human rights of children. This mistreatment is implemented by social institutions that are supposedly dedicated to caring for children. The family fails to bring up the child with love and care. The child's education rarely teaches him anything of use and often abuses him. An orphaned child, if he has no friends or relatives to take him in, may receive empty gestures of support from an institution but most often does not and is ignored or openly mistreated by society. Indeed, whether cast upon themselves or not, most of the children in Dickens have lost one or both parents, and this loss symbolizes the lack of care they receive. In his early novels, Dickens uses philanthropy to bring about happy endings, and in later works philanthropy continues to be the only alternative to the failed social institutions; however, Dickens later sees that society's failure is too great to be neatly corrected by individual philanthropy. In destroying its young citizens, society is slowly destroying itself. This study examines the breakdown of the family, education, and care for orphans in Dickens's novels Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Great Expectations.

This study represents an attempt to explore the occult tradition, in particular the Kabbalah, in an effort to establish a relationship between this tradition and the prophetic poems of William Blake. The Kabbalah is examined to reveal similarities between the kabbalistic Adam Kadmon and Blake's sleeping giant Albion. In addition, a comparison is made of the sexual dichotomies in both sources. Once Blake is viewed as a part of the occult tradition and the kabbalistic similarities are explored, an important aspect of Blake's poetry is clarified, by considering the essential design of kabbalistic thought as it stands in close relation to the prophetic poems, which are his most ambitious projects.

It is the intent of this thesis to describe and analyze the various aspects of the fall motif in five novels of William Golding: Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and The Spire The fall motif shall be defined, in part, to mean an allusion to a lapse of mankind from innocence or goodness into a state of innate sinfulness through willingly succumbing to temptation-- symbolic of the Biblical fall from the Garden of Eden.

Henry James, Jr. (1843-1916) has had a greater impact on the world of the novel than any other writer. The greatest controversy surrounding this most prolific of American authors and critics Concerns the area of sexual passion. The most insidious criticism leveled against James is that he and his characters lack sexuality. The whole problem is epitomized in this perusal of the sexual consciousness of Isabel Archer Osmond, the famous heroine in The Portrait of a Lady. While many critics simply ignore Isabel's sexuality, many others are less discerning than they should be, and some are absolutely mistaken: they appreciate the chaste. innocent young, virgin with blue-blooded ties, but they fail to recognize the healthy, red-blooded woman who is of greater depth in the very real "Lady" she becomes. James allows the observer to glimpse the white purity and strength of the young girl who is described as being independent or self-reliant and full of spirit in the beginning of the novel--there is a sexual aura in the sense of anticipation created here--but, while this first impression is a correct one and purposefully remains with the reader, James goes much further in brushstroking in impressionistic details as Isabel's senses are whetted and her character and feelings are further revealed through her relationships and growing experiences. Implicit in some critics' views is the assumption that Isabel can be placed on a pedestal of purity in men's minds and held there as some ideal of the eternal virgin awash in the white light of her intelligence precisely because she remains for them untainted by earthy sexuality. They see her as a cold work of art not vulnerable to carnal concerns. Those men fail to recognize that the experiences that contribute to her expanding sexual awareness detract from her personal beauty no more than the blooming of a rose detracts from the integrity of the tightly furled bud. The first chapter presents pertinent views of the critics. Most critics in finding Isabel either "sexually cold" or "frigid" point to the many instances in the novel when Isabel exhibits caution or fear of one kind or another and ultimately find in them all a "fear of sex." The second staccato-like chapter reveals Isabel's "fear" for what it is. Isabel's experiences and relationships with men and women are viewed under the microscope of the third chapter. The observer's growing awareness of the development of Isabel's sexuality is truly a process of accretion as James allows his reader glimpses of Isabel in different settings ranging from her chaste New England room to her husband's somewhat sinister home in Rome. This concluding chapter illustrates that anyone who will conscientiously scrutinize the ample details that James provides will find Isabel Archer Osmond in no way lacking in sexuality.