Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Conrad was one
of the earliest exponents of what became known as Modernism, demonstrating experimentation in narrative
shifts, denseness of prose and ambiguity.
The short stories of Stephen Crane are significant works of
another of the first Modernists and a friend of Conrad. The Open Boat shows particular genius.
Sigmund
Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams was a defining influence on the Modernists, with his popular turn
of the 20th century psychological readings inspiring the 'stream-of-consciousness' methodology of Woolf
in Mrs. Dalloway, Joyce in Ulysses and Lawrence in Sons and Lovers among others.
Dubliners by
James Joyce - a collection of short stories depicting different stages of life unified by themes such as
urban decay and paralysis, and written conceptually around the notion of "epiphanies" or moments of
spiritual importance.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - the defining Modernist
autobiography. Joyce reassesses his childhood in Ireland while experimenting with the interior monologue
and a successful attempt at matching the style to the age and thoughts of the narrator.
Ulysses by James
Joyce - The defining Modernist text, a brilliant experimental work following two Dublin men through a
single day using numerous devices to vary the style and type of the book itself (newspaper speak, drama
etc.) and crucially the 'stream-of-consciousness'.
The novels of D.H. Lawrence, especially Sons and
Lovers, show the Modernist tendency to psychoanalyse characters as they are written with a peculiarly
solipsistic and autobiographical fervour.