The period 1890 to 1950 is remarkable for radical innovation and literary development. This volume looks back to the origins of Modernism and the traditions that shaped it, examining texts from France, America, England and Ireland to provide a stimulating and original take on this unique movement in literary history. Combining textual analysis with key critical approaches, the book considers central texts such as Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Lawrence's Women in Love alongside wider debates on "Literature and War", "Modernism, Music and the Visual Arts" and "Modernism and its Critics".