Joyce 專傢、Gifford 教授作序。 Although James Joyce left Ircland as a

young man and spent the vast majority

of his adult life on the Continent, all his

books have Ireland as their geographical

center. When asked near the end of his life if

he ever intended to return to Ireland, Joyce

responded truthfully, "Have I ever left it?"

Here, in one volume, are Joycc s two most

widely read and accessible books, Dubiiners

and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young

Man. The fifteen short stories collected in

Dubliners can be regarded as separate and

independent entities, but they can also be

considered as parts of a larger whole, rein-

forcing and illuminating each other, func-

tioning as pieces of a mosaic that moves

like a novel from childhood to adulthood.

At the center of this mosaic is Dublin itself,

chosen by Joyce because, in his own words,

"that city seemed to me the center of paral-

ysis." Even the geographical construction of

the stories suggests this. The opening sto-

ries involve motion toward the east, toward

an escape from the paralysis. But in the bal-

ance of the stories this eastward motion

gives way to a concentration toward the

center of Dublin--a gradual tightening ot

the noose.