'Joe Cleary has done the world a great service with this book. He persuaded Seamus Deane to publish a collection of new and old essays, some of which date from the1970s and 1980s, and he guided the selection and arrangement of the contents.' James Chandler, Critical Inquiry
Foreword, Joe Cleary; 1. Swift as Classic; 2. Burke in the USA; 3. Tone: The Great Nation and the Evil Empire; 4. Imperialism and Nationalism; 5. Irish National Character 1790–1900; 6. Civilians and Barbarians; 7. Heroic Styles: The Tradition of an Idea; 8. Ulysses: The Exhaustion of Literature and the Literature of Exhaustion; 9. Dead Ends: Joyce's Finest Moments; 10. Elizabeth Bowen: Sentenced to Death: The House in Paris; 11. Elizabeth Bowen: Two Stories in One; 12. Mary Lavin: Celibates; 13. Emergency Aesthetics; 14. Wherever Green is Read; 15. The Famous Seamus; 16. The End of the World.