In Ulysses and Us, Declan Kiberd argues that James Joyce's Ulysses offers a humane vision of a more tolerant and decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world. As much a guide to contemporary life as it is virtuoso work of literary criticism, Ulysses and Us offers revolutionary insights to the scholar and the first-time reader alike.Leopold Bloom, the half-Jewish Irishman who is the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses, teaches the young ...

A teasing but affectionate celebration of cricket through the ages, written by one of Ireland's greatest living critics.Cricket is the strangest game. It features idealism, brutality, low comedy, high intelligence, luck and sheer bravery in equal measure – and often achieves the condition of art.Declan Kiberd's remarkable book is a celebration of cricket through the ages, and of the peculiarities of the people who love and play it. He evokes brilliantly wha...

To celebrate the centenary of the publication of Ulysses, the most important literary work of the twentieth century, eighteen artists, writers and thinkers respond to an episode each of the great modernist text.Each essayist is an expert in one of the subjects treated in the novel, but what brings them together is a common love of Ulysses.Joseph O'Connor considers the music-saturated Sirens episode and David McWill...

Kiberd - one of Ireland's leading critics and a central figure in the FIELD DAY group with Brian Friel, Seamus Deane and the actor Stephen Rea - argues that the Irish Literary Revival of the 1890-1922 period embodied a spirit and a revolutionary, generous vision of Irishness that is still relevant to post-colonial Ireland. This is the perspective from which he views Irish culture. His history of Irish writing covers Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge, O'Casey, Joyce, Beckett, Flann O'Brien, Elizab...

Ireland is suffering a crisis of authority. Catholic Church scandals, political corruption, and economic collapse have shaken the Irish people's faith in their institutions. The nation's struggle for independence is thrown into doubt. But, as Declan Kiberd argues in this engaging survey of post-war Irish literature, the country's creative writers have been alert to this reality from the start.He describes the young...

‘It is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape’ T. S. EliotFollowing the events of one single day in Dublin, 16 June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses has been censored, attacked, and deemed profoundly subversive and blasphemous. Ceaselessly inventive, hilarious, garrulous, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive, it is simultaneously a great no...

This book is a collection of essays and a short story written to honor Christopher Fox of Notre Dame, arguably the most influential figure in Irish Studies for the past quarter century. The essays address topics in which Professor Fox has made his own enduring scholarly contributions, and subjects to which he has made enduring contributions through his academic leadership, from the development of library collections and important fellowships at his university to the institution of a global...

At the funeral, several priests remarked how appropriate it was that Father Conroy should have returned on his last day to Rosnagree, the parish in which he was born.Father Tom Conroy – a spiky, difficult man – dies at a reunion of his seminary colleagues. As this masterly novel unfolds, we are taken through the years that formed this troublesome priest, who knew his life had been a failure. The Hungry Grass is a sharply witty and moving novel of a world on the cu...

Brought to you by Penguin.This Penguin Classic is performed by Patrick Gibson, known for his roles in The OA, The Tudors and The Passing Bells. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Declan Kiberd'Everybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century' Anthony Burgess, ObserverFollowing the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to th...

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany:...

A much-loved author brings the world of literature alive for all agesThis 'little history' takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious passion for books and reading has defined his own life. Now he guides young readers and the ...

A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters.Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing – scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images – to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism.Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, W...