The Dead and Other Stories

That James Joyce's "The Dead" forms an extraordinary conclusion to his collection Dubliners. , there can be no doubt. But as many have pointed out, "The Dead" may equally well be read as a novella-arguably, one of the finest novellas ever written. "The Dead," a "story of public life," as Joyce categorized it, was written more than a year after Joyce had finished the other stories in the collection, and was meant to redress what he felt was their "unnecessary harsh[ness]. " Set on the feast of the epiphany, it is a haunting tale of connection and of alienation, reflecting, in the words of Stanislaus Joyce (James's brother and confidant), "the nostalgic love of a rejected exile. ". The present volume highlights "The Dead" for readers who wish to focus on that great work in a concise volume-and for university courses in which it is not possible to cover all of Dubliners. But it also gives a strong sense of how that story is part of a larger whole. Stories from each of the other sections of Dubliners. have been included, and a wide range of background materials is included as well, providing a vivid sense of the literary and historical context out of which the work emerged.