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Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.. Business management planning for nursing service administrators. Loose-leaf format. DNLM: 1. Administration Personnel. ... Read more

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Henrietha A troubled Jamaican woman of many woesome years and with a history of compulsive abuse, marries into misery as wife to male chauvinist and philanderer Demian Browne who in his treachery around the right to ownership of Henrietha's flesh earnestly evinces- "If I can't have you then no other man will" 'She's white so she doesn't understand my plight as a black woman' So thinks Henrietha Browne about Joanna White who she met at a Caribana event. "Henrietha Browne is a 'story source' that will feed me the meat of my magazine article on strong women'" "Joe, my ex husband moved in with the biggest bimbo I've ever seen. I suspect they met when I was laid up with a terrible flu" "Waiting . . . "Ruby, keeps on insisting she's a sistah when she knows darn well she isn't . . . Such is the conviction of Susan Ottawa a black Canadian lawyer with a staunch belief in self: the will to self-empower without any need for the Almighty God. She draws strength instead from her 'god' Johnny Cochrane as if she 'had caught the hem of his coat as he was leaving this world. "I can see the White House burning back then. I can see Martin Luther King Jr . . . I see Marvin Gaye" So says Anita Kingsley, an educated Jamaican woman who transitions across the chasm between the physical and the 'spirit' worlds. Through relatable characters "Henrietha"'s two novellas layer the politics of love, hate, race, and sensibility over religion and the paranormal. The storytelling is an unusual, edgy, hopscotch of enticing voyeurism. Questions arise while thoughts kindle around kinship and one's own self-awareness in the breadth of this human experience. It urges the surrender of disbelief as truth entwines fiction like life's pretzel of fantasy superimposing the thought- provoking-roller-coaster dynamic of reality. "This is truly a work of hope and conquest. The beginning is good and it gets better. The flashbacks engaged my mind on a travel ... Read more

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"First Born of an Ass is alternately profound and funny, clinical and poetic, and altogether creating its own mythology. Few novels have appeared in recent years that are as fresh and inventive. It is also a book, which in its sense of freedom will irritate the more inhibited of the book-buying public. But this is how it should be"--Norman Mailer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Move Over Stephen King
I read some poems here and there...but what captivated me was the story about the "adjuster."
The story makes fun of corporate america and how if someone wants to succeed, they would have to proove themselves. This guy just wants to perform his job well and is a very ambitious man. He is so ambitious that he even commits murder.
This story is a very quirky story about the insurance industry and corporate america. I would highly recommend to purchase this book and see exactly what the rave is all about.

The adjuster by Scott Bobrow
This short story touches the spirit of a man, his inner thoughts and actions.
It is written in a very clear way that makes you finish the story and uncover the deepest emotions of the main character.

The Adjuster by Scott Bobrow
I loved this story.It is so real and true to the ugliness of life
in corporate america.Willard Newman has all the attributes and foul elements that the insurance industry embodies.I could definitely see Robin Williams playing this part.Willard Newman is a character I will not forget.He is etched in my mind forever.Read this book!

The Adjuster by Scott Bobrow
I am in awe of this gem that I came across in this otherwise bland anthology.

Never have I read a more real and gut wrenching story about racism,company loyalty,murder and a character that will not ever leave my mind.

Who is this writer? He has created an original,grotesqe,racist claims adjuster that commits murder,spews hate,blackmails and yet,whether we like it or not,we care for him on some level. Without a doubt this is a character and story that is so original,so disturbing and so good that I feel like marketing this story.

The Adjuster takes up half the anthology,and for good reason: it is amazing. We finally have apolitically incorrect novel that should be honered for its courage and insights: it lets us know that America is still run by white males weho use racial profiles to exploit its customers and employees. If you have ever had an auto claim,or might,read this story.

But the real brillance is the writing and characters and the originality of the story. It is hysterically funny at times,and so brutal and ugly the next. Its graphic and raw,but never is it not true to its themes and message.Its an Anti Racist book;anyone denies this denies racism exists.

I could not put this down.A hunchback claims rep with a shedding skin condition and who is the most vilecharacter I have ever read,commits blackmail,murder,extortion and yet does so for what he feels is for the integrrity of the insurance industry.

You need to read this twice to pick up the clever and subtle nuances that you miss on the first read.

The suopporting characters are amazing,as is how racially biased this industry can be.

Willard Newman is someone I feel I know,he wont go away.I have never written areview but Ive read many books. This gem is so original,so brutal,so funny and so repulsive,the publisher must be on cloud nine.

Please read this story. Hollywood take notice: Willard Newman will becomea household name.

This blew me away, I have had five of my friends read this and some were disgusted,angered,apalled but werein awe of this story.

Mr Bobrow,you have done something special: you have created an original monster,an original story and I demand to know who your agent is,because if you dont have one,I will represent you.

WOW. READ THIS. AND THEN READ IT AGAIN. ITS COURAGEOUS, UGLY, and BRILLANT. ... Read more

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Albert Einstein said no problem can be solved at thelevel of thinking that created the problem. Those words, echoingthrough time, find America weary and battle scarred from decades oftrying to solve the problem of overweight by focusing oneating. Author, Joyce Johnson, says experience has taught her thatit’s not about eating at all—it’s about eliminating old beliefs andold behavior patterns that are keeping us locked in a self-destructivespiral.

Current estimates are that more than 60% of us are significantly overweight and some portion of the 40% who are still holding their own are either anorexic or bulemic.America is losing the war on fat. We need a new strategy if we are to survive.

Won't Power is not another way to dominate your body. It's a strategy for persuading your body to stop eating itself to death. ... Read more

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An interactive book designed to aid grieving and healing. A memory keepsake of your dog with pages to record information about your dog.Ideal for children and adults.Full-color illustrated book. 8 1/2 x 11". 44 pages. ... Read more

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Ulysses, one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, has had a profound influence on modern fiction. In a series of episodes covering the course of a single day, 16 June 1904, the novel traces the movements of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through the streets of Dublin. Each episode has its own literary style, and the epic journey of Odysseus is only one of many correspondencies that add layers of meaning to the text.

Ulysses has been the subject of controversy since copies of the first English edition were burned by the New York Post Office Authorities. Today critical interest centres on the authority of the text, and this edition, complete with an invaluable Introduction, notes, and appendices, republishes for the first time, without interference, the original 1922 text.Amazon.com Review
Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, andunreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolseydeclared it an emetic book--although he found it sufficientlyunobscene to allow its importation into the United States--andVirginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacalobsession." None of these adjectives, however, do the slightestjustice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernistmasterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism andvulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in aclose-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegeticalindustry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses isalso a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of thefinal chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you'rewilling to be buffeted, tickled, challenged, and (occasionally) vexedby Joyce's sheer command of the English language.

Among other things, a novel is simply a long story, and the firstquestion about any story is: What happens?. In the case ofUlysses, the answer might be Everything. William Blake,one of literature's sublime myopics, saw the universe in a grain ofsand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a daydistinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalusand Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing pathswith a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat,stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. Andthanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggestsno mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we'reprivy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almostevery variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian foldsof a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimentalwork but the very last word in realism.

Both characters add their glorious intonations to the music of Joyce'sprose. Dedalus's accent--that of a freelance aesthetician, who dabbleshere and there in what we might call Early Yeats Lite--will befamiliar to readers of Portrait of an Artist As aYoung Man. But Bloom's wistful sensualism (and naivecuriosity) is something else entirely. Seen through his eyes, arundown corner of a Dublin graveyard is a figure for hope andhopelessness, mortality and dogged survival: "Mr Bloom walkedunheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars,family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland'shearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some charity forthe living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybodyreally?" --James Marcus ... Read more

Customer Reviews (431)

A Show About Nothing
This review is for people that have not read this novel and are frightened by it.

Greatest novel of all time, blah blah blah. Forget the academic wankery that has encased this novel like a black, shiny coffin. Joyce never meant this novel to be read with reverential nods and oh so serious frowns. This is a novel that is bursting with atmosphere and life.

In its essence, this novel attempts two major tasks: to inflate one utterly ordinary day in the life of a human being to epic proportions, and to do so by undertaking a different writing-experiment for each chapter.

The "epic inflation" aspect is absolutely fascinating. Mr Leopold Bloom spends an entire day wandering around Dublin for a bit, then comes back home. Absolutely nothing "epic", in the usual sense, actually occurs here. He encounters a spiritual son in the form of the slightly malnourished, youthful, pseudo-intellectual Stephen Dedalus...but the encounter doesn't really lead anywhere.

Rather, it is the point of the novel to inflate the simple things in life to something epic. Taking the Odyssey as its skeleton (and you really should be familiar with the Odyssey before attempting this book), Joyce turns each tiny incident during the day (in pretty much "real time") into an epic event with its own incredible atmosphere and drama. Even Bloom sitting on the toilet, going to the post-office, or drinking instant chocolate become massive epic events.

To some degree this is slightly self-mocking. However, the novel makes you see your own life in a slightly different way. Maybe there are no "dull" days in our lives; from a certain point of view even the most mundane stuff, like dropping off something at the post office, or drinking Ovaltine, becomes miraculous.

Secondly, there is the experimentation. The fact that each chapter is a totally different experiment gives you a real sense of curiosity about the novel. What is coming next? Stream of consciousness wackiness? A play? Random newspaper headlines? The division of the book into different experiments means that, even if you don't like one chapter, you can read on in the hopes that the next chapter will be more to your taste.

Think of it as being like a concept album. Even if you don't dig Within You Without You, When You're Sixty-Four is just around the corner.

Overall, I liked the atmosphere of the novel. Even if sometimes you don't totally get what's happening, you get a strong sense of Dublin c. 1904, with people lunching on gorgonzola sandwiches and sherry at pubs, people wandering along Sandymount Strand and buying sweets, people going to the turkish bath and buying scented soap.

There is also the unmistakeable tang of the Homeric Aegean. Dublin is near the sea, like Troy, and you don't forget it. Whether wandering the sandy beach, eating headless sardines from a tin, or watching drunken soldiers wandering along the street at night, the sea is never far away.

Don't be put off this book. Wallow away in something that is truly an epic "show about nothing". Speaking of which, what is this book comparable to in the modern world?
§ "Seinfeld", with its excruciating minutiae about life in New York City being raised to the mock-epic level, whether it's George lying about his job or Elaine wondering if a rabbi is gossiping about her.
§ "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", with its exuberant, youthful experimentation with the very bedrock of music albeit with a playful unpretentiousness
§ most oddly, "24", with real time coverage of events in such a way that every single hour has something epic happening in it.

A genius, yes, but one I really do not like
Joyce was a great genius, granted, but what he did with his genius is something that doesn't appeal to me. Dangling the snotgreen stuff at the beginning of the book is not what I would call an inviting beginning. Yes, it's a marvel of writing, but I do not like what it is being marvelous about, or at. It's like a beautiful women who farts a lot but doesn't give a damn, because she knows her bosoms are so fetching. Well, fetching bosoms can take a woman only so far, just as fetching writing-- even a genius's writing-- can take a book so far. (IMHO). So yes, I like Joyce's writing's beauty and I like its fetching sensations, but I do not like his artistic manners and I do not like the liberties he takes with my attention-- which he sure knows how to catch, but so what. So can Flaubert (a greater writer, imho), and so can Proust (almost ditto).

With all that out of the way I'll not-grudgingly say you probably have to read Ulysses, because, first, it sits like a dead weight in the midst of modern writing, and, second (if you are a writer), so you could steal some of Joyce's marvelous writing technique. But I would not read him more than once.

AM

TheYeats touch
This is the most beautiful book to come out of Ireland in our time.One thinks of Homer.

Be careful which edition you buy.
I bought the edition with the Despite it being on the expensive side, I do not think this is a good edition to buy. (I mean the one with the plain white cover with small black text). Be careful, the text chosen in the review is not accurate to this edition - it has no map, etc. I think it is possibly the uncorrected edition which means tons of mistakes that JJ later fixed, if I have it right. Well, 1/3 of the way through it is not too late for me to switch to one of the 'corrected' editions.

There is no publication information in this book.

The novel is great, but just be careful which edition you buy.

Imperfect text
I suppose I shouldn't complain much at 95 cents, but the text has a disconcertingly high error rate.There are no italics, verse is not offset, there are scattered typographical errors, and I've found a few instances where stray numbers appear in the text.Also, I'm only three chapters in.

If you are unfamiliar with this book and care about these things, you might want to look elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description
"Johnson gives these women visibility and voice as they relate their lives, their crimes, and their efforts to remain connected to families and communities...powerful."
— Booklist

"Inner Lives soars when the women are allowed to speak for themselves."
—Book

The rate of women entering prison has increased nearly 400 percent since 1980, with African American women constituting the largest percentage of this population. However, despite their extremely disproportional representation in correctional institutions, little attention has been paid to their experiences within the criminal justice system.

Inner Lives provides readers the rare opportunity to intimately connect with African American women prisoners. By presenting the women's stories in their own voices, Paula C. Johnson captures the reality of those who are in the system, and those who are working to help them. Johnson offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of this fastest-growing prison population by blending legal history, ethnography, sociology, and criminology. These striking and vivid narratives are accompanied by equally compelling arguments by Johnson on how to reform our nation's laws and social policies, in order to eradicate existing inequalities. Her thorough and insightful analysis of the historical and legal background of contemporary criminal law doctrine, sentencing theories, and correctional policies sets the stage for understanding the current system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

excellent book
wonderful insight into the lives of african american women in prison.A definite read!

A start to coverage of a much needed topic
While this like other books is not perfect, the authors begin to try to address the shortage of information on women in the criminal justice system, especially in the prison system.In particular, the authors provide attention to women of color, who like their male counterparts, comprise the majority of those in prison.As a criminology and sociology professor at a private Jesuit university, this book is very beneficial for getting my students to think outside the box and begin critical discourse on the topic.Most women, like most men, are not in prison for violent crimes.They are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, most of which involve drugs.furthermore, they are more likely than men to be incarcerated for drug offenses, and this has been a major contributing factor to their increasing incarceration rates, which are occuring at a faster and higher rate than men overall. In fact, in the federal system, around 40% of all offenders are incarcerated for drugs.While not all women who offend have been victimized, most have some history of adult and/or childhood victimization, which this book attempts to address.Unfortunately, given the non-violent nature of the crimes that most women commit, they continue to be ignored or provided only marginal attention in the criminological field.Women of color are even more marginalized in the literature, though this is beginning to change.This book is a good start to getting people to begin addressing these issues.The authors make no pretense about being neutral, which may concern some readers focused on academic rigor.however, the framework for the book does not take away from its contributions, even if they are not flawless.Nothing ever is.

Weak academically and otherwise
Professor Johnson gives the total victim typology a full-out book-length workout. Every excuse for the women she cites comittingcrimes is dredged out and covered weakly with academic gloss. Most women are in prison for violent, not non-violent crimes, which invalidates many of her arguments for them as primarily society's victims (as prostitutes, drug addicts etc.) A lower % of African-American women are in prison than African-American men, which she fails to cite, and also fails to butress her points. The whinier of the voices she quotes also grates after a while.
... Read more

Product Description
The publication of James Joyce's 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.Although only twenty-four 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 civilization 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, to reveal to the Irish their unromantic reality, which would lead to the spiritual liberation of the country.Each of the fifteen stories offers glimpses into 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.
This edition is introduced and annotated by Jeri Johnson, who gives a witty and informative insight into the context, meanings, and reception of Joyce's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (142)

Published on demand version full of typos!
Dubliners is a fabulous set of short stories. But SOHO Books, who published this version, let all sorts of typos get through, thus marring what would be a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.You need to do a better proofreading job, SoHo Books!

More Powerful With Age
I first read Dubliners in a Joyce class I took in college in the late 90s.I'm sorry to say that at the time, it must not have made much of an impression on me, as there were several stories in the collection that I couldn't recall ever having read.Having read the book again at the age of thirty-four, I was better able to appreciate both Joyce's prose and the subject matter of the stories.I think these stories are perhaps better understood once one has been out in the "real world", worked a job (dead end or otherwise), spent some more time on romantic pursuits, and tasted a little disappointment.Perhaps these stories didn't resonate with my younger self because of my lack of experience in some of these areas.As an adult who has grappled with the notions of identity, religious values, nationality, marriage, career, financial/social status, and alcohol, I found that I was able to relate better to many of the themes Joyce explores in Dubliners.

This is not to say that the book shouldn't be studied in college lit classes, as Joyce's prose is excellent and the content of each story can provide for a rich literary discussion.This book can be enjoyed on many levels and by anyone with a love of the written word.I firmly believe though that the more life you have under your belt, the more these stories will mean to you.

In short, Dubliners is a collection of stories about everyday people doing everyday activities.It presents a slice of life look at what Dublin might have been like during Joyce's time while also presenting underlining ideas regarding religion, nationality, class, relationships, and politics.This book is worth reading and highly recommended.I would add that if you're interested in reading James Joyce, this is the place to begin.There are some characters in these stories who turn up in Ulysses for example.Dubliners is also less experimental than either Ulysses or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and thus more accessible.

A Deal, A Pleasure
Sell me a toaster with the following supplements: ten loafs of bread, a few sticks of butter, and some jam; I will call it a deal.Likewise, sell me the second half of "The Dead" with the following supplements: "A Little Cloud," "Eveline," and twelve other short selections; I will call it a deal.Unless James Joyce indited his signature in blood on your copy of DUBLINERS, it is impossible to be fleeced as a result of purchasing this book.The quality of most of the collection remains uncontested.True, every story is not as good as "The Dead"; true, every story is not as poor as "Grace."Immutability is not a trait to be found in DUBLINERS.Each piece relies on an epiphany and some stories, whether a result of craft, plot or character, achieve the desired effect better.Regardless, some of the best pieces of short fiction I have had the pleasure of reading were in this excellent collection.

But why is it excellent?For this enraptured reader, many times it felt as if he escaped the corporeal and touched spirits with all who've encountered the emotions, the situations that Joyce's characters did.It is one of the greatest joys in reading fiction: being described your very own thoughts better than you could ever hope to.And yet--and yet--it is as well one of the greatest joys in reading fiction: when a skilled writer sells you the unfamiliar as something equally palpable to your memories.For long moments, I was able to transcend the limits of the page and believe the words as I would believe seeing an old man briskly walking by, a squirrel running up a tree.

A confession: when the SoHo Book version of DUBLINERS arrived, I was repeled.The glossed cover, the long pages--it all felt amateur and lacking taste.However, the more I read, the more I found enjoyment arising from the unique presentation.In fact, by the time I was through "A Painful Case," one of the last few stories, I could not imagine what it was about the initial impression it had that I disliked.If your wont is to scribble copious amounts of notes, this version is both wonderful and terrible.Unless you've been gifted with minute handwriting, it will be a pressing task, writing observations in between sentences, writing questions on the margins.At the end of many stories, though, large blank spaces are left prior to the start of the next.

Every lover of books should buy herself a copy of Dubliners, allow himself to read it whenever the occassion strikes appropriate.

Highly recommended
A number of short stories focusing on different aspects of life in the city. I can't speak as to it sociological value, but taken as literature almost all of the discrete pieces is very nicely done. The stories are very short--most under ten pages, and within the limited narrative scale Joyce provides a lot of punch to his depictions. There's never the space in any single story to manifest the same scale or psychological complexity afforded by novels--and right here is the basis of my main reluctance with short stories--but there is some very good plotting and characterization on display. Best of all, the fact that all these stories in some degree make Dublin a central character in the drama allow them to be read in aggregate effectively, showing with skill a wide variant of scholars, merchants, priests, sensualists and politicians. Highly recommended.

Review posted on The Literate Man ([...]) on July 28, 2010
I have a confession to make ... I don't really like short stories. I mean, I see their utility for teaching the elements of story structure and characterization, and I appreciate the odd twist that makes for a memorable story scene, but I never find them really fulfilling. And I generally forget them very quickly. They are, I would contend, the rice cakes of the literary scene ... universally respected as the most healthy of literary treats, but consistently failing to deliver any actual nutrition to their hungry readers. I find it hard to believe that I am alone in this. Come on, be honest. Have you really gone out of your way to read short stories since you were ten and forced to read The Lottery?

Now, when I state a dislike of short stories in the context of a review of James Joyce, I feel guilty ... and I mean seriously guilty. Even the mention of Joyce conjures for me images of the staunch Irish Catholicism that I endured as a child and have been running from ever since. It's enough to make me want to confess.

"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned ... it has been more than three years since my last short story."

Fortunately for me, Dubliners is a bit different. First published in 1914, Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories (okay, it's really 14 short stories and one novella) that depict middle class life in Dublin just after the turn of the twentieth century. The stories revolve primarily around topics that are near and dear to the Irish heart: death (The Sisters, A Painful Case, and (of course) The Dead), poverty (After the Race, The Boarding House, and Clay), alcohol (Counterparts and Grace), and politics (Ivy Day in the Committee Room). Now, even as I write it, that depiction sounds downright drab, but Joyce's lyrical skills are at their peak in these stories, and every single one manages to warm your heart just as if you yourself were standing next to a peat fire in some country pub out on the cliffs of the old sod ordering a round of pints for the lads.

Between the consistency of the Dublin scene that it paints and the beautiful effect of Joyce's lyrical prose, Dubliners is a very enjoyable read. In fact, though it was written by the same Joyce that we love and hate for Ulysses and (ugh) Finnegans Wake, Dubliners is even completely understandable! It makes me wonder what Joyce might have produced if he hadn't grown so enamored of experimenting with form and language. Not that what he wrote wasn't good ... I mean, the best ... oh there I go feeling guilty again. That's what happens when you criticize the master. Does anyone have a rosary?
... Read more

Product Description
The publication of James Joyce's 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.Although only twenty-four 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 civilization 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, to reveal to the Irish their unromantic reality, which would lead to the spiritual liberation of the country.Each of the fifteen stories offers glimpses into 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.
This edition is introduced and annotated by Jeri Johnson, who gives a witty and informative insight into the context, meanings, and reception of Joyce's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A story collection which defines a world, and provides the themes for the great expansions to follow
'Dubliners' is not a group of stories simply, but rather a group of stories which defines a world. Joyce here outlines those themes which he will expand upon and elaborate stage- by- stage in the "Portrait" in 'Ulysses" in "Finnegan's Wake". The city of Dublin and Joyce's home- world are the world in which family, religion, country are in decay. And yet within these tales of frustration and failure, the romantic longing the hints toward transformation of experience through the sacred work of the artist. Joyce's is already, ironically or not, forging in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race.
This edition of what is now one of the 'classic' short - story collections discusses the work's composition, and provides a bibliography for further studies. It does not however as the 'Norton Critical Edition' does provide essays of explication.
What is most important however is the stories themselves which have a kind of lyrical beauty. This is felt most strongly in that tale of stagnation and romantic longing idolized and regretted, 'Dubliners'. In human scope and feeling I personally find Chekhov and also I.B. Singer beyond Joyce as storytellers. But this is surely one of the world's greatest collections of stories. ... Read more