Exiles, James Joyce - Desmond MacCarthy (review date 1918)

Desmond MacCarthy (review date 1918)

SOURCE: MacCarthy, Desmond. “James Joyce's Exiles.” In Humanities, pp. 88–93. New York: Oxford, 1954.

[In the following review, originally published in 1918, MacCarthy enthusiastically discusses the published version of Exiles.]

Exiles is a remarkable play. I am more sure of this than of having understood it. I could never undertake to produce it unless the author were at my elbow; and when a critic feels like that about a play which has excited him it means he has not quite understood it. What I can do is to give an account of the play and show where I was puzzled. But first I must come to terms with a misgiving. It is a treat to be puzzled by a play, so perhaps I overrate this one because it has puzzled me? I do not think that is the case, but that possibility is the grain of salt with which what follows must be taken.

To be made to wonder and to think about characters in a...

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