This realistic portrait of what Joyce called "the second city of the British Empire" was written when the author was only 25. It is a milestone in the history of prose fiction -- and remains perhaps the finest collection of connected short stories ever published. The details of Dublin life among the lower middle class of shopkeepers, clerks and tradesmen illustrates the social decline and disillusionment of a defeated colonial city.  (IRE15, $9.95)

Dublin