Epoch and Artist

Epoch and Artist: Selected Writings by David Jones, 307 pages

Epoch and Artist is a selection of essays written by David Jones between 1937 and 1958, primarily on the subject of art, both visual and poetic.  The strong theme uniting the essays (and indeed, Jones' work as a whole) is the connection between the universality of art and the particularity of the artist.  For Jones, the vocation of the artist is that of redeeming the present, making of here and now but for eternity.  He illustrates his basic understanding with examples stretching from the distinctively British expression of universal Christianity in The Dream of the Rood to Joyce's use of his native Dublin.

Readers who have struggled through In Parenthesis or The Anathemata will be frustrated to discover that Jones is capable of writing prose nearly as dense and opaque as his poetry, but gratified to learn it is also nearly as rewarding.