James Joyce's The Dead - Unabridged

The final (and longest) story in James Joyce's short story collection "The Dubliners," "The Dead" is one of Joyce's most beloved works of short fiction. Taking place at Christmastime, the tale revolves around Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta, who are attending a holiday party hosted by Gabriel's elderly aunts. In typical Joycean style, this seemingly mundane setting hides many of the guests' secrets and mysteries, not the least of which is shielded by Gretta herself. When her great secret finally spills forth, it has a profound and immediate effect on Gabriel, changing his life forever. A powerful and elegiac examination of life, love and the very nature of the Irish identity, this volume is presented in its original and unabridged format.

James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish novelist, literary critic and poet and is considered one of the most important and influential writers of the 20th century.Born in Dublin, Joyce was the eldest of ten children to survive infancy. His father's unsteady financial situation made life for the family challenging, but James was an excellent student, performing brilliantly at the Jesuit Belvedere College and graduating from University College in Dublin in 1902.He met his future wife, Nora Barnacle, in 1904 and the couple soon moved to Trieste in Austria-Hungary where they would remain until 1915. While in Trieste, Joyce wrote his first book of poetry - Chamber Music - as well as The Dubliners (a collection of short stories, featuring "The Dead') and the novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The couple retreated to Zurich during World War I where Joyce began work on his experimental novel Ulysses.After moving to Paris in 1920, Joyce completed work on Ulysses and published the book in 1922. It caused an immediate sensation, not only for the unique and stream-of-consciousness style he employed in the book, but also because it was soon banned in both England and America for the novel's perceived profanity. (It was smuggled into both countries and often pirated before the ban was lifted in the 1930's.)Joyce would labor for the next sixteen years on his follow-up work, Finnegan's Wake, traveling the world with Nora, undergoing various surgeries and treatments to address his failing eyesight and attempting to help his daughter Lucia, who suffered from severe mental health issues (she was eventually confined to an asylum).After the Germans invaded France in 1940, Joyce and Nora again returned to Zurich where Joyce, after surgery to treat a perforated ulcer the following year, died just weeks before his 59th birthday.