That James Joyce's ""The Dead"" forms an extraordinary conclusion to his collection Dubliners , there can be no doubt. But as many have pointed out, ""The Dead"" may equally well be read as a novella--arguably, one of the finest novellas ever written. ""The Dead,"" a ""story of public life,"" as Joyce categorised it, was written more than a year after Joyce had finished the other stories in the collection, and was meant to redress what he felt was their ""unnecessary harsh[ness]."" Set on the feast of the epiphany, it is a haunting tale of connection and of alienation, reflecting, in the...