SOURCE: “The Lost Vision in Dylan Thomas' ‘One Warm Saturday’”, in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. VI, No. 2, Winter, 1969, pp.

In the following essay, Kelly believes that the themes and structure of Thomas's short story “One Warm Saturday” are derived from James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

“One Warm Saturday,” the last story in Dylan Thomas: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, shares with Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the theme of a quest for perfection of the profane world. Thomas' flippant title, however, provides a significant clue to the outcome of his version of a youth's search for what Joyce calls “the unsubstantial image which his soul so constantly beheld.”¹ Although Thomas' story may be read and enjoyed without any reference to Joyce, a critical reading of “One Warm Saturday” that takes Joyce into account...