Exiles (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Joyce, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241406013 ISBN 13: 9780241406014

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2026

Synopsis

‘The undertow of unspoken feeling is tumultuous, and although hardly anything happens the action amounts to a fearful adventure’ New York Times

James Joyce’s play Exiles follows the story of writer Richard Rowan, who, along with his 'common-law wife’ Bertha and their son Archie, has come home to Dublin after ten years away. The couple’s return triggers an existential questioning, an anxiousness which is exacerbated by meetings with old friends and lovers. All this is set against the background of the summer of 1912, when Ireland and even England were threatening to tear themselves apart over Ulster. Exiles is a profound exploration of jealousy, doubt and the complexity of human desire; it is also about the torments of disunion in both the public and private realm.

With a new introduction and notes by Andrew Gibson.

About this title

About the Author

James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882, the eldest of ten children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. He was none the less educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University College, Dublin, and displayed considerable academic and literary ability. Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much of the subject matter for all his fiction. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). James Joyce died in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241406013
• ISBN 13: 9780241406014
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240