Anybody know a book that has the epic war poem 'In Parenthesis' in?

[waltzingparrot]

I've decided whilst in lockdown to read and study the epic war poem In Parenthesis ' by David Jones. Some academics hold it up as the greatest written word of any genre, so feel I should give it a go.

I thought I'd find it on the Internet, but can't. Amazon have a print copy but it's £18. Does anyone have the title of an anthology that includes it that I could search for please?

Hallo waltzingparrot

It's probably too long for an anthology. It's in 7 parts and the copy I have runs to 187 pages ( Faber & Faber hardback copy that I bought a couple of years ago for £10). I know this defeats your objective, but if you can wait till things get back to normal you may be able to borrow it from the library before committing £18, which does seem quite expensive.

Unfortunately because this is a very long poem it’s unusual to find the whole thing in an anthology. I have three collections of WW1 poetry and they all only have extracts. If you do a search on bookfinder.com you will find some rather cheaper copies. Alternatively is it available electronically?

Can't help with the request, but when we were students at university in North Wales in the late sixties we bought a copy of In Parenthesis from a second-hand bookshop. When we got it home we found a personal dedication from David Jones to a former soldier and a letter talking about their time in Mametz Wood.
Sadly we sold it a few years later when money was short.
It was a lovely thing to own for a bit though.

You can read it in digital form here:

archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.13580/mode/2up

It's in a book in its own right

We paid five shillings for it. I have no idea what a signed first edition would be worth these days.

Thank you all for your replies and for the link @goingoverground

I'm glad it's long - I'm a slow reader so it will keeping me going for several weeks. I watched an interesting documentary on you tube about David Jones' life and history behind the writing of the poem. Sad that the recall of his war led to a nervous breakdown, yet also led to what some regard as a masterpiece.

Oh missclimpson, I do feel for you, but as you say, a lovely thing to own however temporarily.

David Jones grew up close to where I live and is buried with a rather beautiful headstone in Brockley cemetery (just in case anyone is interested and in South East London!).

@waltzingparrot You can get a used copy on Abe Books for £2.50 + p&p here
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22887535306&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3Din%2Bparenthesis&cm_sp=snippet--srp1--title7

Thank you @CaptainNelson - that price is more like it.