A classic short story collection anchored by the famous “The Dead” recommended as an annual re-read by Tom Asher is perhaps intentionally without the usual “The.” Sketches in which little happens, no “apocalypse in a tea cup” (Calisher) for Joyce as he provides the reader with insights into the men and women living hard, poor, blighted lives in pre-WWI Dublin—pol in a bar, friends planning to take a Sot to a Catholic retreat, sisters burying their priest brother, a mother trapping a husband for her daughter. Not very attractive characters or upbeat stories, but true, gritty, spare, and crystal clear.