Dubliners

"Since its publication in 1914, Dubliners has been arguably the most famous collection of short stories written in English. Through what James Joyce described as their "style of scrupulous meanness," the stories collectively present a direct, sometimes searing view of the city of Dublin in the twentieth century. This Norton Critical Edition is based on Hans Walter Gabler's scholarly edition and includes Gabler's edited text, his textual notes, and a newly revised version of his introduction, which details and discusses the complicated publication history of Dubliners. Explanatory annotations are provided by the volume editor, Margot Norris." ""Contexts" is a rich collection of materials intended to bring Dubliners to life for twenty-first-century readers. The Irish capital of a century ago is captured through photographs, maps, songs, newspaper items, and advertising. Early versions of two of the stories and Joyce's satirical poem about his publication woes provide additional background." ""Criticism" includes eight interpretive essays that illuminate some of the stories most frequently taught and discussed -"Araby," "Eveline," "After the Race," "The Boarding House," "Counterparts," "A Painful Case," and "The Dead." The contributors are David G. Wright, Heyward Ehrlich, Margot Norris, James Fairhall, Fritz Senn, Morris Beja, Roberta Jackson, and Vincent J. Cheng. A Selected Bibliography is also included."--BOOK JACKET.

James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland, on February 2, 1882, the eldest of ten children. Educated at Clongowes Wood College and later at Belvedere College in Dublin, Joyce went on to study philosophy and languages at the Dublin College of the Royal University. Joyce left Ireland in 1902 and went to Paris, but learning that his mother was dying, he returned to Dublin in 1903. After his mother's death, Joyce taught school in Dublin and met Nora Barnacle, the woman who would be his lifelong companion. Joyce and Nora left Ireland in 1904 and traveled to Trieste, where Joyce taught languages at the Berlitz school. Apart from one trip back to Dublin in 1912, Joyce spent the rest of his life on the Continent. Wealthy patrons subsidized his writing, and Joyce became the most influential novelist of the twentieth century. His writings include Chamber Music (1907), Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Exiles (1918), Ulysses (1922), Pomes Penyeach (1927), and Finnegans Wake (1939). James Joyce died in Zurich in 1941. Edna O'Brien is the author of The Love Object, A Scandalous Woman, A Rose in the Heart, A Fanatic Heart, The Country Girls Trilogy, The High Road, and Lantern Slides. Irish-born, she currently lives in London.