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New and uncovered
This collection is somewhat misleadingly titled - it isn't just the collection suggested by the title, but a true collected Djuna Barnes poetry edition. It features poetry that until now was only in in newspapers and periodicals. It's a fascinating insight into this truly original and important 20th century voice. Anyone interested in modernism or the women who were the uncelebrated voices within it should be interested in this. ... Read more

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Oh Zeus! Oh Diane! Oh Hellebore! Oh Absalom! Oh Piscary Right! What shall I do with it! To have been the First , that alone would have gifted me! As it is, shall I not pour ashes upon my Head, gird me in Sackcloth, covering my Nothing and Despair under a Mountain of Cinders, and thus become a Monument to No-Ability for her sake?Amazon.com Review
Djuna Barnes must have had great fun writing and illustratingthis book. It's a lively lampoon of her lesbian chums of Left BankParis in the 1920s. The main character, Dame Evangeline Musset, isbased on the notorious dyke Natalie Barney.Structured as amonth-by-month almanac in a style that owes as much to Shakespeare'scomedies as to any literature of the intervening centuries, Barnes'sbook follows the Dame's amorous, often naughty, adventures. ... Read more

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Fine storytelling
Djuna Barnes (June 12, 1892 - June 18, 1982) played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing by women and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris.

Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction written by T.S. Eliot, and stands out for for its portrayal of lesbian themes and distinctive style.

Barnes spent the last 40 years of her life as a recluse in New York city. Since her death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books, like this one, are now back in print.

Her books are lively, irreverent, and just plain fun to read in modern times.I highly recommend that you introduce yourself to this original author!

An extraordinary book. Great fun reading and rereading it.
This is a funny book written in a poetry like style.The amusing illustrations are inspired on old wood engravings.But it's not only the story an the illustrations that are interesting. The book itself, the way it was published and distributed is also verry interesting and even romantic.In 1928 'spicy' books weren't allowed, not even in Paris France. So it was privately published in a small edition of which about 50 copies were hand coloured by the author. All books were sold by Djuna Barnes and some frends in secret along the Seine.With the help of Natalie Barneys copie the 1972 edition contains an explanation of the names used in the story and who they were in real life. ... Read more

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The fiery and enigmatic masterpiece—one of the greatest novels of the Modernist era.Nightwood, Djuna Barnes' strange and sinuous tour de force, "belongs to that small class of books that somehow reflect a time or an epoch" (Times Literary Supplement). That time is the period between the two World Wars, and Barnes' novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous.

The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction—there is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions. Barnes' depiction of these characters and their relationships (Nora says, "A man is another persona woman is yourself, caught as you turn in panic; on her mouth you kiss your own") has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature.

Most striking of all is Barnes' unparalleled stylistic innovation, which led T. S. Eliot to proclaim the book "so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it." Now with a new preface by Jeanette Winterson, Nightwood still crackles with the same electric charge it had on its first publication in 1936.Amazon.com Review
Nightwood is not only a classic of lesbian literature,but was also acknowledged by no less than T. S. Eliot asone of the great novels of the 20th century. Eliot admired DjunaBarnes' rich, evocative language. Lesbian readers will admire theexquisite craftsmanship and Barnes' penetrating insights intoobsessive passion. Barnes told a friend that Nightwood waswritten with her own blood "while it was still running." That flowingwound was the breakup of an eight-year relationship with the lesbianlove of her life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Read it twice (please) and then discuss it in book group
At the March 2008 meeting of the NYC LGBT Center Book Discussion group, we discussed "Nightwood" by Djuna Barnes.

We had a very small group that was surprised at the difficultly and rewards and incomprehensibility and pleasure of the novel. One reader brought his notes about Barnes' biography, which were very helpful. By discussing several aspects of the novel, we learned more about what was going on and made sense of much of it, including the "what just happened?!" ending.

We all agreed that it is much more understandable on its second reading. This may be a great novel (#11 on The Publishing Triangle's list of 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels), but it seems very odd and difficult to approach without knowing Barnes' life and having some additional tools to handle the text.

Why did I give this four stars? This is a three-star review for the book itself and a FIVE-STAR REVIEW for book groups considering reading it.

I do not get it
I have tried to read this book several times over the past twenty years and never made it past page 25. I found the book to be stupefyingly dull. I find this vey puzzling because the list of Barnes admirers are legion. Everyone from T.S. Eliot to Samuel R. Delany to Herbert Read have proclaimed the book's greatness.Moreover, I have read and admired many abstrct and abstruse books. I don't get it. It must be some fault of mine that prevents me from appreciating this novel.
Maybe someone can leave me a comment that will put it together for me.

Breathtakingly Bad: as Art/Life-Affirming as a Steven Seagal film.
This book is so embarassingly, jaw-droppingly, crosseyed-inducingly bad, I wonder what T.S. Possum was ever smoking when he agreed to write the preface for it (which is also badly written, go figure!).

My only explanation for how this book/writer ever became published/famous, is, most feminist readers simply do not read very much other than feminist writers, and so, alas, become woefully deluded as to even basic literary values (vide, gibbering eulogist reviews re Barnes romancière).

Perhaps the only justification a sane grown-up human being has in reading this turbid swill, is it is really, really (I mean, you-can't-make-this-stuff-up!) funny, to make fun of. If, in fact, you are like me -- somebody what feels like they have "read everything" and are moving on with jaded appetite to 4th and 5th tier litterati -- I actually heartily recommend "NightBoner" as a bracing cordial of pure giddy hilariousness. The blunders come so bewilderingly turgid and apace (literally every line would, if found singly, make you wince) that altogether they constitute a sort of big fun symphonic Blooper, like a gushing "Tour de Force, majeure" that not only absolves the reader of that once sacred trust -- in the basic daring, decency, and humanity of the writer -- but invites, even taunts, us to rubberneck along in a dazed and stupefying trance while this weird pretense-puffed creature self-implodes... leaving behind the lonely and incomprehensible void whence she came.

Perhaps people just shouldn't named their kid "Djuna" to begin with. Maybe it isn't an auspicious start for the orotund-prone.

I wonder if she was even aware that while she was indulging her florid, flailing, 10th-grade best on paper, writers like Céline or Isak Denison or other 1930's leviathans were laboring, humbly and maturely and painstakingly, at the real Thing?

I am indeed somehow reminded of the local ping-ping champion who, in all his pride and innocence, had never heard of the chinese olympic team. But I suppose, at a certain point, it is just awkward to juxtapose, when it's not already obvious, nicht wahr?(oh yeah, attaching itty unneccesary bits of foreign lingua franca to mortar her crumbling Queen's English is one of Barne's favorite literary resorts. This troubles the real multi-linguist; she also likes words like juxtapose.)

Anyway, a person who actually is literate will perhaps find a similar fascination in another obscenely overrated, ex-pat, paname writer's romp: James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room". It too is a They're-So-Bad-They're-Good, 5th-tier-book-club monstrosity.

I am serious though this type of fake writing is so depressing and pathetic and transparent, in its tinseled pomp and grotesque bungling and simpering aesthete foppery, that I am truly dumbfounded it has a following -- however PHD-thesis evolved and sustained she be.

The Edge of Attention
There is no question that Djuna Barnes' book is engaging. To begin to read it is to fall into a mania; descending word after word into the pathetic world of the four main characters - especially Dr. O'Conner, whose errant monologues expose the other characters while covering his own descent.

Is it well-written? No doubt; the descriptions are moving, the scenes (when there are scenes) are gripping, and the characters are alive. But it's easy to fall into the question: does all of the book matter? During some of Dr. O'Conner rambling tangents, for example, I could've flipped through another book or made myself some tea, coming back (as after a commercial break) to engage with the truly consequential passages. Of course it's difficult to know what matters in one reading, which makes "Nightwood," in its way, a bit of a trick.

It's short enough, at 180 pages, to speed through and see in hindsight almost before it's finished. This saves the book; the rush one feels reading it is both modern, and a signature of a paradoxical writer, reckless, but in complete control of the reader's attention - having O'Conner become interesting right before he closes the book.

Aside from my reading experience, "Nightwood" is a classic of lesbian literature, a modern marvel, and recommended by T.S. Eliot (so?).

So, decision time. Buy it? Check it out from the library? That depends. For the lover of conservative styles and plots, probably not. But for the edgy reader, into a little risk - "Nightwood" is it.

A prose poem...
... is T. S. Eliot's description of Djuana Barnes novel. It is that, and much more. I first read this novel almost 40 years ago; felt I understood very little of it.In the intervening time I have walked past, and patronized the Café de la Mairie, a backdrop for much of the action, on the north side of the square in front of St. Sulpice numerous times. Unquestionable a radically different café in the `30's, certainly not surrounded by the very chic shops of today.The Café "nagged" me into giving it a second try.

I am truly grateful that it was not a school assignment. I imagined a Professor expecting effusive praise, and that my report on the book would have to be filled with ramblings on "transgender identification," "anomie," "angst," "symbolism," "codependence," "transcendent wisdom" and of course, "stream of consciousness."And with a bit of luck, I might get a B -.

But when your main motivation is a pleasant café, and a "does-your-perspective-improve-with-age" attitude, then what? No question the prose is rich and dense, with wonderful insights, coupled with sheer and utter nonsense. Consider some of the wonderful passages: "Love is the first lie; wisdom the last." or "We give death to a child when we give it a doll--it's the effigy and the shroud; when a woman gives it to a woman, it is the life they cannot have, it is their child, sacred and profane:..." There is a wonderful analogy for love in the ducks in Golden Gate park so heavy on overfeeding that they cannot fly.But regrettably these oscillate with the utter nonsense of: "He had a turban cocked over his eye and a moaning in his left ventricle which was meant to be the whine of Tophet, and a loin-cloth as big as a tent and protecting about as much."And that is why so many readers, including myself, find the book such a difficult read. Brilliance, alternating with the drug-induced ramblings worthy of William Burroughs, NOT, James Joyce.

"Baron" Felix seems the best drawn, and most understandable of the characters. His child, Guido, likewise, for a minor character. The four central characters: Robin Vote, Nora Flood, Jenny Petherbridge and Dr. Matthew O'Connor all seemed far too opaque, motivation is clearly lacking for so many of their actions. True, a central theme is lesbian love, and its betrayals, with bit parts for transvestitism. All of which I am constitutional incapable of having deep insights into... but still, if reading is too illuminate, there was only a small candle glowing on these issues.

I was struck by the quality of the other reviews on this book, the best, by far, of any other book on Amazon. Many of their insights do not need to be duplicated in this one - one commenter in fact said there was no need to write one after reading Eric Anderson's.Yes, it is an excellent review.

Overall I settled on a 3-star rating.It is a provocative, radical book, particularly for the `30's, with some wonderful insights into the human condition.But it is so hard to stay focused when these are combined with the William Burroughs nonsense. (Sorry, "Professor.")It was with a sense of profound relief that I finished the book, realizing in the unlikely event I have another 40 years to go, there will not be a third try.
... Read more

Product Description

This study looks at the origins of the modernist movement, linking gender, modernism and the literary, before considering the bearing these discourses had on Djuna Barnes's writing. The main contribution of this innovative and scholarly work is the exploration of the editorial changes that T. S. Eliot made to the manuscript of Nightwood, as well as the revisions of the early drafts initiated by Emily Holmes Coleman. The archival research presented here is a significant advance in the scholarship, making this volume invaluable to both teachers and students of modern literature and Barnesian scholars.

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An in-depth biography of Djuna Barnes (1892-1992), a familiar figure in Greenwich Village and Left Bank literary and lesbian circles during the 1920s and 1930s. Mostly remembered for her novel "Nightwood", she wrote many poems, plays and stories now all but forgotten, as are her drawings and paintings. The book explores Djuna Barnes's family life, including her possibly erotic relationship with her feminist and spiritualist grandmother, and her relationship with her bigamist father (who, some critics claim, may have sexually abused her). There are also chapters on her years as a journalist, and on the writing and publication of "Nightwood". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

indispensible
I will weigh in because there are only 3 reviews here and a couple of them seem rather misguided. Before this volume there was only Barnes' work and an extremely self indulgent book by Edward Field - to my mind a horrible writer - which, after the example set by Djuna's own interviews - her journalism gigs - is much more about the writer writing than the subject being written about. Whatever flaws the Herring bio has (to me, none were evident) it provides valuable insight into Barnes' life and writing.

As for shock effect, there isn't a"free spirit" I've ever read about who's left me as slack jawed as daddy Wald Barnes. Unless you want to include maybe Leonard Lake and Kenneth Ng, Aleister Crowley or maybe Jim Jones or the Matamoros Cult leader guy. And where else would you learn that Djuna's brother was one of the men responsible for composing the immortal line "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?"

Subsequently there has appeared the rather cruel account of Djuna in her dotage which is more a portrait of dementia than anything else - not uninteresting but unpleasantly exploitative and axe grinding. I suppose that guy earned the right to take advantage for what it was worth, which was likely not a great deal!

Anyway, I would venture to guess this book will fascinate even if you don't care for Djuna Barnes as a writer. After all, it appears that this feisty femme might have murdered Hitler! My recommendation is that you purchase it for sure and lap it up! Starting at 2 cents a copy? Order now!

Too much of Herring in a book on Barnes
While I appreciated being able to find something about Djuna Barnes whose life is quite fascinating but little told, I was put off by some of Phillip Herring's style. In several places he makes reference to claims Barnes was molested as a child by either her father or possibly even her paternal grandmother. But in instance when he is suggesting the grandmother molested Barnes he says it might have been a case of "good-natured fondling." Say what???

Barnes did not make it easy for anyone to write about her. She lived a long and eventful life but to the end she refused to cooperate with those wishing to write about her life rather than those who shared her life. She was an important facet of a stunningly creative time; Paris of the twenties, when many Americans sought refuge with each other as the entire world tried to put the tremendous tragedy of World War I behind them.

Although Barnes' writing does not have the acclaim today of many others from that time (Hemingway, Stein, Joyce and Eliot to name a few) she was lauded by some of those writers who would be acclaimed as literary giants as a great source of inspiration and encouragement. It is too bad we do not have more written about her other than this florid, rather precious account of her life.

JLH

Interesting life, dull book
I came across a reference to Djuna Barnes' name in another review comparing the author to Barnes.I had never heard of her despite her notoriety in the 40's.She was known for her alternate lifestyle as well as her writings, and hobnobbed with many well known artists. I purchased her book "Nightwood" at the same time I bought her biography but have not yet read it.Herring makes references to her books (with page numbers)throughout the biography and draws parallels to Barnes'life.Evidently all of her books were based on her family and their lifestyle. Her grandmother was a free soul, advocating sexual freedom and passed her views onto her son,Wald, Djuna's father.Not surprisingly, he was less than an ideal father.At one time in Djuna's childhood, her household consisted of her grandmother, her father and his wife,her many siblings, and her father's mistress and their multiple children.Despite the fascinating characters, I found Herring's book rather dry and mired in minutia.What kept me reading was the unfolding of the life of an extremely unusual and interesting person. I look forward to reading "Nightwood" and hearing about Djuna's life in her own words.I anticipate a more exciting read.

Powerful book and very disturbing
Biographies are sometimes the powerful of all writing to me. The best ones are the books that open a person's life, that reveal without judgement how the person became what they were.

Djuna Barnes's early life was horrific almost beyond understanding. Rape(?),incest(?), paternal abandonment and grinding poverty -she was the financial supporter of her extended family while she was still in her late teens. Yet it is a mark of her genius that she was able to overcome all the odds and become a true modern author.

All of her best works were autobiograpical and all dealt with the critical tragedies of her life. 'Ryder' was an attempt to deal with her father - incest or rape,'Nightwood' to deal with her failed relationship with Thelma Wood, and finally 'Antiphon' to deal with her entire disfunctional family. The wellspring of her most bitter invective was her own life.

This biography is good, thorough and complete. Djuna suffered pain and repaid that pain over and over again. Her venom, her rage, the sheer angst she had flows like blood on every page. But in spite of all that, her artistry was able to give her pain a rich voice and this book captures her spirit as well as her wraith.

But in some ways, this book is almost like watching a car wreck...there is a human impulse to look away not see such suffering. I was both repelled by and drawn into the recounting of such public agony by such a private person. Djuna Barnes's writing is not meant for everyone, and this biography isn't either. ... Read more

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first paperback edition of Barnes' stories Amazon.com Review
Djuna Barnes, best known for her 1936 novel Nightwood, was amodernist with a fertile talent, who worked as an illustrator, areporter, and a feature writer for newspapers and avant-garde magazinesin the first half of this century. In their playfulness with words andsyntax, the short stories in this volume, written between 1914 and1942 and collected by her biographer, PhillipHerring, show the influence of James Joyce andGertrudeStein. Many were written for magazines and end with a plottwist. As one might expect from a visual artist, these stories arefull of symbolic images, often hauntingly grotesque. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a road less traveled
Djuna Barnes tops the scale for underappreciated writer of this century.She exhibits a masterful command of the language; fresh metaphors startle on every page, in every paragraph.Each story is different; each characterstylistically flawless.For your own sake, please read this book! ... Read more

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The version of Nightwood published in 1936 and revered ever since both as a classic modernist work and a groundbreaking lesbian novel differs in many ways from the book Djuna Barnes actually wrote. The Dalkey edition not only restores to the main text the material Barnes reluctantly allowed to be cut, but also reproduces in facsimile the seventy pages of discarded drafts that survive of earlier versions. More than sixty years after its publication, Nightwood is firmly established as a twentieth-century classic, and this critical edition will allow readers and scholars to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of this unforgettable work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Definitely Minor Writer
In this edition, the novel itself takes up only 143 pages. The rest is apparatus, excerpts of discarded text, and a lot of other editorial mumbo-jumbo. However, there is one big thing missing from this edition, and that is T. S. Eliot's preface. I have read only the first chapter, but I don't think I'm going to appreciate the remaining chapters either.

I managed to plow my way through this truly awful book, but I couldn't make myself read more than a chapter a day. It was just pointless. There was no story, none of the characters were even remotely interesting, nor did they have anything memorable to say.

There are certain books I have just not been able to appreciate: IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT, A TRAVELER (Calvino), THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES (Musil), all of Rabelais. It's probably a missing gene, one I'm glad I haven't got.

A first and great incite into a mystery concerning manuscrip
It was thought for many years that there was another manuscript, or thatthere were more pieces to this book than the slim version which became aprose masterpiece included in the canon of American Lit 1900 to 1940. Because of the editing and work by Eliot etal, and because of Barne'sreclusiveness, wse didn't know much about this manuscript.Thus CherylPlumb's work helps us understand more about the process of this book, it'sstarts and stops, it's magic and mystery.A must for Djuna Barnes fans ... Read more

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Barnes's extraordinary first novel, illustrated ... Read more

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an astonishing writer
It wasn't only T.S. Eliot who described Djuna Barnes's style as Elizabethan. (Though the poet Marie Ponsot has described her as Jacobean.) What period could encompass this twentieth century writer's talent for casting spells both psychological and atmospheric?I've never read anyone quite like her.If only James Joyce had been a little more talented, he might have been Barnesian--but few of us know this; join us!

A Great Achievement
This is an amazing work.A mostly autobiographical parody, Barnes uses Ryder as sort of a twisted extended metaphor for the rest of the world.The beautiful and inventive prose, though often obscure, illustrates thelife of the Ryder family poignantly and indignantly.Written in variousstyles, the book is bound to touch each and every reader. ... Read more

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A selection of work by the American writer Djuna Barnes. It consists of her novel "Nightwood", a collection of short stories entitled "Spillway", and a verse play, "The Antiphon", which she completed shortly before her death in 1982. ... Read more

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This groundbreaking edition compiles many of the late unpublished works of American writer Djuna Barnes (1892–1982). Because she published only seven poems and a play during the last forty years of her life, scholars believed Barnes wrote almost nothing during this period. But at the time of her death her apartment was filled with multiple drafts of unpublished poetry and notes toward her memoirs, both included here for the first time. Best known for her tragic lesbian novel Nightwood, Barnes has always been considered a crucial modernist. Her later poetry will only enhance this reputation as it shows her remarkable evolution from a competent young writer to a deeply intellectual poet in the metaphysical tradition. With the full force of her biting wit and dramatic flair, Barnes’s autobiographical notes describe the expatriate scene in Paris during the 1920s, including her interactions with James Joyce and Gertrude Stein and her intimate recollections of T. S. Eliot. These memoirs provide a rare opportunity to experience the intense personality of this complex and fascinating poet. ... Read more

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fiction, ed w/intro by Douglas Messerli ... Read more

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Strange, Beautiful Smoke
If my memory serves me well, I first learned of "Smoke and Other Early Stories" after reading an article about Douglas Messerli, founder of Sun & Moon Press in Los Angeles. Messerli spoke of his giddy discovery that the copyright on many of Barnes' short stories had run so he had the legal right to publish them. Though Barnes apparently was not pleased by this, this collection is the result. And God bless the result. These fourteen tales (puntuated by Barne's own strange and evocative pen-and-ink illustrations) should be read by anyone who loves well-crafted, provative short fiction; and it should be a must for those who are beginning writers. The first sentence of each story introduces you to a world where everyday people and things transmute inexplicably into something weird and dreamlike: "Every Saturday, just as soon as she had slipped her manila pay envelope down her neck, had done up her handkerchiefs and watered the geraniums, Paprika Johnson climbed onto the fire-escape and reached across the strings of her pawnshop banjo." (From "Paprika Johnson.") Sometimes, she sets the stage simply as with the first line of "What Do You See, Madam?": "Mamie Saloam was a dancer." As Messerli notes in the introduction, Barnes' stories were published in newspapers at a time (the first two decades of the 1900s) when the public expected to see short fiction in such venues. Reading this collection can only make you long for such an era. ... Read more

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In her compelling re-examination of Djuna Barnes' work, Daniela Caselli raises timely questions about Barnes, biography and feminist criticism, identity and authority, and modernist canon formation. Through close readings of Barnes' manuscripts, correspondence, critically acclaimed and little-known texts, Caselli tackles one of the central unacknowledged issues in Barnes: intertextuality. She shows how throughout Barnes' corpus the repetition of texts, by other authors (from Blake to Middleton) and by Barnes herself, forces us to rethink the relationship between authority and gender and the reasons for her marginal place within modernism. All her texts, linked as they are by correspondences and permutations, wage a war against the common sense of the straight mind.Caselli begins by analyzing how literary criticism has shaped our perceptions of Barnes, showing how the various personae assigned to Barnes are challenged when the right questions are posed: Why is Barnes such a famous author when many of her texts remain unread, even by critics? Why has criticism reduced Barnes' work to biographical speculations? How can Barnes' hybrid, eccentric, and unconventional corpus be read as part of literary modernism when it often seems to sever itself from it? How can an oeuvre reject the labels of feminist and lesbian literature, whilst nevertheless holding at its centre the relationships between language, sexuality, and the real? How can Barnes' work help us to rethink the relation between simplicity and difficulty within literary modernism?Caselli concludes by arguing that Barnes' complex and bewildering work is committed to a high modernist notion of art as a supremely difficult undertaking whilst refusing to conform to standards of modernist acceptability. ... Read more