The tripartite structure adopted for the collection works extremely well, neatly separating discussions of key texts and terms from their analysis against, across and beyond the Modernist period. […] ‘Diving in at will’: might Ardoin’s description of the recklessly perceptive modernist artist serve just as well as a suggestion for how we ought to encounter Bergsonian thought in Understanding Bergson, Understanding Modernism? Perhaps. ‘The best way … to understand a concept like durée or élan vital, for instance, is to dive into its cross-textual development,’ Ardoin, Gontarski and Mattison insist at the outset. Such an approach proves fruitful, elucidating and building upon ideas of free will, artistic perception, comedy and memory. […] ‘Diving in at will’ may well be its recommended approach, but the volume still rewards those readers wishing only to wet their toes.