Revision seems to be an intrinsic part of good writing. But Hannah Sullivan argues that we inherit our faith in redrafting from the modernist period. Examining changes made in manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs by Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, and others, she shows how rewriting shapes literary style, and ...

Revision seems to be an intrinsic part of good writing. But Hannah Sullivan argues that we inherit our faith in redrafting from the modernist period. Examining changes made in manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs by Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, and others, she shows how rewriting shapes literary style, and how the impulse to touch up can go too far.