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.â€
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.