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Lauren S. Cardon, Fashion and Fiction: Self-Transformation in Twentieth-Century American Literature

work should be brought out. An unexpurgated edition of Ulysses appeared in the Albatross Modern Continental Library in 1932, but under a specially created imprint, Odyssey Press. This protected Albatross from association with obscenity, whilst allowing the publisher, Max Christian Wegner, to reach a sizeable audience of readers keen to know more of Joyce’s works, which were much discussed but often hard to obtain. Series such as Albatross, the Phoenix Library and the New Adelphi Library were willing to take risks on difficult or controversial books, since the publishers were (rightly) convinced that markets could be created for them. These series therefore differed from those established before the First World War, such as J. M. Dent’s Everyman’s Library and Wayfarers’ Library, with their emphasis on wholesome, clean, optimistic texts. But Dent’s basic model – publishing reliable texts in an attractive but inexpensive physical format – was retained in the newer series. Jaillant does not pursue the story beyond the 1950s, but it is interesting to note that the solidly respectable Dent series has survived into the present, while the more daringly modern ones all fell victim to the paperback revolution. Hardback Everyman’s Library reprints are still published, and there is also a paperback line of ‘Everyman Classics’ (though the two are no longer owned by the same firm). Many of the texts which now form our canon of modernism started off in small, expensive editions which were far beyond the reach of the majority of readers. But Jaillant shows that modernist literature was very soon turned into a profitable enterprise by publishers. Print runs in the thousands or tens of thousands were typical for the books in the reprint series, and they were usually priced at three shillings and sixpence. A recent review of Cheap Modernism in the Times Literary Supplement generated a reader letter commenting on the contrast between this low price for a hardback reprint novel in the 1930s and the £75 charged for Cheap Modernism itself. Today, of course, copies of Ulysses or Mrs Dalloway can be obtained for a few pence, while the changing economics of scholarly publishing has made academic critiques of those novels unaffordable. Cheap Modernism is not cheap, and neither is it very long; but it is an intriguing, elegantly argued and thoroughly researched study: definitely one to recommend for purchase by your university library.