He asked himself what is a woman standing on the stairs in the shadow, listening to distant music, a symbol of. Often cited as the best work of short fiction ever written, Joyce's elegant story details a New Year's Eve gathering in Dublin that is so evocative and beautiful that it prompts the protagonist's wife to make a shocking revelation to her husband--closing the story with an emotionally powerful epiphany that is unsurpassed in modern literature.
General Note
"The dead was first published in the collection Dubliners in 1914"--Title page verso