Ryder - Foreword and Contents

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve

Ryder is an expurgated text whose censored passages were removed under American enforcement rules; asterisks indicate where omissions occur to prevent guessing at damage to sense, continuity, and beauty. The foreword frames the work as a partial view of creation’s face, showing how war on written language altered imaginative writing. It notes that, though earlier publications were often reconstructions, this edition reveals the actual havoc produced by censorship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages268

Reading Time6 h 53 min

AccessFree to download

Foreword

A Note on the Text and Illustrations

Contents

Ryder Djuna Barnes To T.W. Contents Foreword A Note on the Text and Illustrations 1: Jesus Mundane 2: Those Twain—Sophia’s Parents! 3: Sophia and the Five Fine Chamber-pots 4: Wendell Is Born 5: Rape and Repining! 6: Portrait of Amelia’s Beginning 7: Sophia Tells Wendell How He Was Conceived 8: Pro and Con, or the Sisters Louise 9: Tears, Idle Tears! 10: The Occupations of Wendell 11: However, for the Reader ’s Benefit 12: Amelia Hears from Her Sister in re Hisodalgus, That Fine Horse 13: Midwives’ Lament, or the Horrid Outcome of Wendell’s First Infidelity 14: Sophia’s Last Will and Testament 15: Who Was the Girl? 16: The Coming of Kate-Careless, a Rude Chapter 17: What Kate Was Not 18: Yet for Vindication of Wendell 19: Amelia and Kate Taken to Bed 20: Amelia Dreams of the Ox of a Black Beauty 21: Wendell Dresses His Child 22: And Amelia Sings a Lullaby 23: Wendell Tells the Mystery to Julie and to Timothy 24: Julie Becomes What She Had Read 25: Amelia Hears from Her Sister in Regard to a 26: Kate and Amelia Go A-Dunging 27: The Beast Thingumbob 28: If Some Strong Woman— 29: The Psychology of Nicknames 30: The Cat Comes Out of the Well 31: No Greater Love Hath Any Man 32: The Soliloquy of Dr. Matthew O’Connor (Family Physician to the Ryders) on the Way to and from the Confessional of Father Lucas 33: Be She What She May 34: They Do Not Much Agree 35: Amelia Hears from Her Sister in Regard to Timothy 36: Amelia Tells a Bed-time Story 37: Sweetly Told 38: Dr. Matthew O’Connor and the Children 39: Wendell Discusses Himself with His Mother 40: Old Wives’ Tale, or the Knit Codpieces 41: Wherein Sophia Goes A-Begging 42: Amelia Hears from Her Sister on the Misfortunes of Women 43: Timothy Strives Greatly with a Whore 44: Fine Bitches All, and Molly Dance 45: Dr. Matthew O’Connor Talks to Wendell on Holy Inspiration 46: Ryder—His Race 47: Going To, and Coming From 48: Elisha in Love with the Maiden 49: Three Great Moments of History 50: Whom Should He Disappoint Now? Afterword by Paul West Foreword This book, owing to censorship, which has a vogue in America as indiscriminate as all such enforcements of law must be, has been expurgated. Where such measures have been thought necessary, asterisks have been employed, thus making it matter for no speculation where sense, continuity, and beauty have been damaged. That the public may, in our time, see at least a part of the face of creation (which it is not allowed to view as a whole) it has been thought the better part of valour, by both author and publisher, to make this departure, showing plainly where the war, so blindly waged on the written word, has left its mark. Hithertofore the public has been offered literature only after it was no longer literature. Or so murdered and so discreetly bound in linens that those regarding it have seldom, if ever, been aware, or discovered, that that which they took for an original was indeed a reconstruction. In the case of Ryder they are permitted to see the havoc of this nicety, and what its effects are on the work of imagination. DJUNA BARNES Paris, August 8, 1927 A Note on the Text and Illustrations The text is taken from the first edition, published by Horace Liveright in 1928. It is an expurgated text, but the only one available: the original manuscript was destroyed during the Second World War, and Barnes declined the opportunity to restore the censored passages for St. Martin’s 1979 reprint. Several of Barnes’s original illustrations were also censored, but happily these survive. To the nine drawings that illustrated the first edition, St. Martin’s added two more—those heading chapters 12 and 15. This new edition adds all the other drawings originally intended for Ryder (pp. 10, 63, 118, 174), including an unfinished one (p. 38), that are now in the Djuna Barnes Collection at the University of Maryland. All th

FAQs

Why does the book use expurgation and asterisks?

The foreword explains that censorship led to the expurgated text, and asterisks are used where necessary to avoid speculation about omitted passages and their impact on continuity and beauty.

Which text source was used for the edition?

The note states the text comes from the first edition published by Horace Liveright in 1928, described as an expurgated text, while the original manuscript was destroyed during the Second World War.

What happened to the illustrations in later editions?

Some original illustrations were censored, but they survive. The first edition drawings were supplemented for later editions, including additional chapter headings and other originally intended drawings preserved in the Djuna Barnes Collection.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve