Contents -- Introduction -- 1 The Life of English Idiom, the Laws of French Cliché -- English and French Traditions -- The Life of Idiom in Joyce and Lawrence -- 2 The Community of Intelligence and the Avant-Garde -- 3 Competition of Intelligence in The Golden Bowl -- Charlotte's Risk -- Maggie's Method -- 4 Constructing Character: Speech and Will in Women in Love -- 5 Near and Far Things in Lawrence's Writing of the Twenties -- The Spectacle of Reality: Australia, the Sea, and Sardinia -- St. Mawr: Spectacle and Symbol -- 6 Postures and Impostures of English in Ulysses -- Dramatic Language: "Every word is so deep" -- The Comedy of Psychic Depth: "You ought to see yourself" -- The Shelter from Fact in "Eumaeus" -- 7 Signs of Life and Death in Beckett's Trilogy -- Le bon sens and Horse-Sense -- Molloy: I'unijambiste -- Throes and Calm in Malone meurt / Malone Dies -- Le type respiratoire / The Respiratory Type: L'Innommable / The Unnamable -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y.