Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0486268705, Paperback)

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0192839993, Paperback)

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.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0946640858, Paperback)

Dubliners was completed in 1905, but a series of British and Irish publishers and printers found it offensive and immoral, and it was suppressed.  The book finally came out in London in 1914, just as Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began to appear in the journal Egoist under the auspices of Ezra Pound.  The first three stories in Dubliners might be incidents from a draft of Portrait of the Artist, and many of the characters who figure in Ulysses have their first appearance here, but this is not a book of interest only because of its relationship to Joyce's life and mature work.  It is one of the greatest story collections in the English language--an unflinching, brilliant, often tragic portrait of early twentieth-century Dublin.  The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life.  Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0393978516, Paperback)

Dubliners is arguably the best-known and most influential collection of short stories written in English, and has been since its publication in 1914. Through what Joyce described as their "style of scrupulous meanness," the stories present a direct, sometimes searing view of Dublin in the early twentieth century. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on renowned Joyce scholar Hans Walter Gabler's edited text and includes his editorial notes and the introduction to his scholarly edition, which details and discusses Dubliners' complicated publication history.

"Contexts" offers a rich collection of materials that bring the stories and the Irish capital to life for twenty-first century readers, including photographs, newspaper articles and advertising, early versions of two of the stories, and a satirical poem by Joyce about his publication woes.

"Criticism" brings together eight illuminating essays on the most frequently taught stories in Dubliners—"Araby," "Eveline," "After the Race," "The Boarding House," "Counterpoints," "A Painful Case," and "The Dead." Contributors include 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.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.