The Dead: A Reader's Guide
Joyce's greatest short story — Gabriel Conroy, memory, and snow over Ireland.
James Joyce's The Dead (1914) closes Dubliners — Gabriel and Gretta Conroy at January party; Gretta haunted by dead Michael Furey; Gabriel's epiphany watching snow "falling faintly through the universe."
Craft
Social comedy tightens to cosmic loneliness — every detail of party matters.
Themes
Irish identity, marriage's secrets, mortality, art's consolation.
Often called finest English short story — mandatory Joyce entry.