James Joyce
1) Dubliners
Dubliners is a wonderfully engaging and accessible collection of stories by James Joyce, an author famed for being difficult to read. It contains fifteen stories, among them The Dead, made into a memorable film by John Huston. This beautiful new edition, with an introduction by John Boyne, was chosen as the One Book, One City title for Dublin in 2012.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is semi-autobiographical, following Joyce's fictional alter-ego through his artistic awakening. The young artist Steven Dedelus begins to rebel against the Irish Catholic dogma of his childhood and discover the great philosophers and artists. He follows his artistic calling to the continent.
3) Ulysses
Dubliners comprises fifteen short stories, which Joyce intended should accurately reflect the life of the Irish middle class. Each story centers around the moment of epiphany, when a character suddenly understands something about themselves or their life and surroundings that they didn't understand before. The protagonists of the stories progress as a life progresses: from children to adolescents, to adults and the elderly.
