&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RJames Joyce&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&RÂ &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras.
Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&RNew introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&RWidely regarded as the greatest stylist of twentieth-century English literature, &&LB&&RJames Joyce&&L/B&&R deserves the term “revolutionary.†His literary experiments in form and structure, language and content, signaled the modernist movement and continue to influence writers today.
His two earliest, and perhaps most accessible, successes—&&LI&&RA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man&&L/I&&R and &&LI&&RDubliners&&L/I&&R—are here brought together in one volume.
Both works reflect Joyce’s lifelong love-hate relationship with Dublin and the Irish culture that formed him.&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RIn the semi-autobiographical &&LI&&RPortrait&&L/I&&R, young Stephen Dedalus yearns to be an artist, but first must struggle against the forces of church, school, and society, which fetter his imagination and stifle his soul.
The book’s inventive style is apparent from its opening pages, a record of an infant’s impressions of the world around him—and one of the first examples of the “stream of consciousness†technique.&&LBR&&R&&LBR&&RComprising fifteen stories, &&LI&&RDubliners&&L/I&&R presents a community of mesmerizing, humorous, and haunting characters—a group portrait.
The interactions among them form one long meditation on the human condition, culminating with “The Dead,†one of Joyce’s most graceful compositions centering around a character’s epiphany.
A carefully woven tapestry of Dublin life at the turn of the last century, &&LI&&RDubliners&&L/I&&R realizes Joyce’s ambition to give his countrymen “one good look at themselves.â€&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LB&&RKevin J.
H. Dettmar&&L/B&&R is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
He is the author or editor of a half-dozen books on James Joyce, modernist literature, and rock music.
He is currently finishing a term as President of the Modernist Studies Association. &&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R
