ABSTRACT Title of Document: BRITISH MODERNIST ... - DRUM

memories of prior visits, “Up there, yes” echoes the beginning of “FIRST” in
jumping from a piece of architecture to a memory. It also echoes the overall function
of “FIRST” in the novel by setting up both the trigger to memory and some of the
thematic issues relevant to the memory: in this case, the relationship between the
narrator’s memory of Wendy and his memory of Tony, and the way their subsequent
respective break-up and death distort that memory. “FIRST,” however, frames the
overall set of memories and wanderings that comprise the middle of The
Unfortunates. For any individual section in the middle, it is the only guaranteed prior
knowledge the reader will possess. It is first, and every other section is a possible
second. It therefore sets up not only the narrative framework in which the disordered
memories will operate, but also serves as a starting place for how both how the
novel’s primary subject, Tony, and its unusual form, will be understood. The
disordered form of The Unfortunates eliminates the middle’s dependence on the
beginning for the narrative line, but it increases the dependence of each individual
section of the middle on the thematic and epistemological priority of the beginning.
That is, because The Unfortunates does not move through time from beginning
through middle to end, the beginning must hold all of the middle in its frame.
In “FIRST,” another gap follows the one-word sentence “Tony,” isolating the
novel’s subject on the page. It is followed by a detailed physical description of
Tony’s body:
His cheeks sallowed and collapsed round the insinuated bones, the
gums shrivelled, was it, or shrunken, his teeth now standing free of
each other in the unnatural half yawn of his mouth, yes, the mouth that
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