The Dead by James Joyce

The last and the best of the Dubliners collection

The Dead is the last, and the longest, in James Joyce’s classic collection of short stories, Dubliners. It is not only the most accomplished story in the collection, many view it as the best story ever. Joyce’s contemporary, the celebrated poet, T.S. Eliot, described it as ‘one of the greatest stories ever written.’ Fast forward one hundred years and Don Barry writing in the New York Times declared it ‘just about the finest short story in the English language.’

I have a very clear recollection of a lecture I intended in York as part of my Open University studies. The lecturer happened to be Irish and during his talk he demonstrated the most extraordinary, passionate interpretation of the story. I remember especially his reimagining of the final scene, Joyce’s startling prose of the snow falling on the grave of Michael Furey and all over Ireland, a white, frozen veil covering the living and the dead. The lecturer’s delivery made me reimagine and reconnect with the story, in a way that was profound and lasting. When I reread the story now I remember this small seminar in York, and this Irishman channeling Joyce’s prose and conjuring the images of snow and the graveyard so it’s remained branded on my…