On a snowy winter night in Dublin, guests gather for an annual holiday party at the home of Gabriel Conroy’s elderly aunts. The evening proceeds with dancing, dinner, singing and speeches, offset here and there by some awkward moments. Cautious, conservative Gabriel and his wife, Gretta, take their leave well after midnight. He is in high spirits, but notes that Gretta is deeply preoccupied, for reasons he shall soon discover.
Indeed, Gabriel’s epiphany is one of modern literature’s most emotionally powerful scenes. James Joyce’s short masterpiece takes in love, loss, ageing, change, Irish culture, identity politics … and the finer shades of living and dying.
James Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, with his great novel Ulysses opening up untold possibilities for the form. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and although he would later live mostly in Continental Europe, that city would remain the anchor of his prose.
ISBN 9781911475446 – Paperback – 110mm x 160 mm – 90 pages – £4.99