Description

This early work by James Joyce was originally published in 1914 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. ‘Dubliners’ is a collection of short stories that focus on Irish middle class life in the early 20th century. James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1882. He excelled as a student at the Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, and then at University College Dublin, where he studied English, French, and Italian. Joyce produced several prominent works, including: ‘Ulysses’, ‘A Portrait of the Young Artist’, ‘Dubliners’, and ‘Finnegans Wake. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the early twentieth century and his legacy can be seen throughout modern literature.

Description

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.

Description

This Vintage Classics edition of James Joyce’s groundbreaking story collection has been authoritatively edited by scholars Hans Walter Gabler and Walter Hettche and includes a chronology, bibliography, and afterword by John S. Kelly. Also included in a special appendix are the original versions of three of the stories as well as Joyce’s long-suppressed preface to Dubliners.   With the fifteen stories in Dubliners Joyce reinvented the art of fiction, using a scrupulous, deadpan realism to convey truths that were at once blasphemous and sacramental. Whether writing about the death of a fallen priest (“The Sisters”), the petty sexual and fiscal machinations of “Two Gallants,” or of the Christmas party at which an uprooted intellectual discovers just how little he really knows about his wife (“The Dead”), Joyce takes narrative art to places it had never been before.

Description

‘I regret to see that my book has turned out un fiasco solenne’ James Joyce’s disillusion with the publication of Dubliners in 1914 was the result of ten years battling with publishers, resisting their demands to remove swear words, real place names and much else, including two entire stories. Although only 24 when he signed his first publishing contract for the book, Joyce already knew its worth: to alter it in any way would ‘retard the course of civilisation in Ireland’. Joyce’s aim was to tell the truth – to create a work of art that would reflect life in Ireland at the turn of the last century and by rejecting euphemism, reveal to the Irish the unromantic reality the recognition of which would lead to the spiritual liberation of the country. Each of the fifteen stories offers a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Dubliners – a death, an encounter, an opportunity not taken, a memory rekindled – and collectively they paint a portrait of a nation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Description

This group of fifteen brief narratives connected by a place and a time, the city of Dublin at the beginning of the twentieth century, was written when James Joyce was a precocious young graduate of University College. With great subtlety and artistic restraint, Joyce suggests what lies beneath the pieties of Dublin society and its surface drive for respectability, suggesting the difficulties and despairs that were being endured on a daily basis in homes, pubs, streets, and offices of the city: underemployment, domestic violence, alcoholism, poverty, hunger, emotional and sexual repression. No writer ever took more seriously the details, history, and culture of a particular place than Joyce did with his home city, and these stories combine dark humor with compassion and a searching eye for the causes of suffering.

This new edition’s historical appendices include contemporary reviews (including one by Ezra Pound) and materials on religion, the struggle for Irish independence, and Dublin’s musical and performance culture.

Description

Stories about the collective struggle of the Irish working class—one of the world’s most compelling portraits of urban life. “When you remember that Dublin has been a capital for thousands of years,” James Joyce once wrote to his brother, “that it is the ‘second city’ of the British Empire, that it is nearly three times as big as Venice, it seems strange that no artist has given it to the world.” Dubliners, completed when James Joyce was only twenty-five, is the first of his works to demonstrate the unique, innovative style that would make him one of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century. Joyce turns his discerning eye to Dublin’s lower middle class—to the petit-bourgeois world of shopkeepers, tradesmen, functionaries, and clerks. The result is a portrait of Dublin life in the early 1900s, an undisputed masterpiece of human experience played out against a defeated city. This edition includes: -A concise introduction that gives readers important background information -A chronology of the author’s life and work -A timeline of significant events that provides the book’s historical context -An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations -Detailed explanatory notes -Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work -Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction -A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader’s experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world’s finest books to their full potential.

Description

Introduction by John Banville   James Joyce was the singular figure of modernism, and to this day his grand vision looms large over contemporary literature and the entire Western canon. His stylistic innovations were revolutionary, yet nowhere is Joyce more accessible than in this volume of short stories, a brilliant collection that celebrates, critiques, and immortalizes the place that Joyce knew better than anyone else: Dublin. From the young boy encountering death in the opening story, “The Sisters,” to the middle-aged protagonist of its haunting finale, “The Dead,” considered one of the greatest short stories of all time, Dubliners is a vivid portrait of the city in all its glory and hardship, and a seminal work that redefined the short form. Featuring a new Introduction by acclaimed novelist John Banville, this edition is not only a breathless portal into Joyce’s “dear dirty Dublin” but a vital literary treasure from one of the great masters of all time.