SOURCE: Edwards, Paul. “Introduction: Alfred Jarry, From Reading to Writing and Back Again.” In Collected Works of Alfred Jarry, Volume I: Adventures in Pataphysics, edited by Alastair Brotchie & Paul Edwards, translated by Paul Edwards & Antony Melville, pp. 11-18. London, England: Atlas Press, 2001.

In the following essay, Edwards provides an in-depth discussion of Jarry's early work and his literary influences.

Clown? Practical joker? Nihilist? For many, Jarry has been the trickster of modern literary history. He is primarily remembered for creating Ubu, a monster often thought to be a force beyond his control, and in consequence Jarry is imagined as the victim of his creation, as a man made over into a puppet. In the face of this persistent attitude, revived at intervals by unscrupulous publishers, an increasing number of scholars, gravitating around the inspirational work of the College of 'Pataphysics, have been diligently editing the individual works, supplying...