'To open a book by David Jones is to walk in the ley lines of his dreaming, a dreaming offered to believer and non-believer alike. Like Blake, John Clare and D H Lawrence, he is one of Albion's great secret imaginers, his prophetic work radiant with "the splendour of forms yet to come".' New Statesman

The Dying Gaul, David Jones's second collection of prose, was published posthumously in 1978. In these essays, Jones explores his deep connection to Wales through its culture, symbolism and through the notion of heroic defeat. He brings particular focus to the question of visual art, not only in Wales, but also in England and in its relationship to war. The collection concludes with a meditation on Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the final substantive piece that David Jones would write, and one which would find him at his most reflective and redemptive.

A rich collection of prose, including the final major piece David Jones would write, exploring his deep connection to Wales, reissued in paperback with a cover based on the artist's original design

About the Author
David Jones (1895-1974) was born in Kent. His mother was a Londoner, his father, who worked as a printer's overseer, came from an old Welsh family, and Jones was to say that 'from about the age of six, I felt I belonged to my father's people and their land, though brought up entirely in an English atmosphere'. He attended art school for some years, but in 1915 he was sent with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers to fight in France, where he fought in the battles of the Somme and Ypres. Jones converted to Roman Catholicism in 1921, and in 1922 began a long association with the artist, designer and writer Eric Gill. In Parenthesis, based on Jones's experiences in World War I, was published in 1937, followed in 1952 by another major work, The Anathemata. The Sleeping Lord, fragments from an unfinished larger composition about the crucifixion, appeared in the last year of his life. David Jones's drawings and paintings can be found in the collections of the Tate Museum, the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, and the National Museum of Wales.


Book Information
ISBN 9780571339532
Author David Jones
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 310g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm