This edition of Joyce's classic short story from Dubliners presents the 1969 Viking critical edition, prepared by Robert Scholes, along with five critical essays - newly commissioned or revised for a student audience - that read "The Dead" from five contemporary critical perspectives. Each critical essay is accompanied by a succinct introduction to the history, principles, and practice of the critical perspective, and a bibliography that promotes further exploration of that approach. The text and essays are further complemented by an introduction providing biographical and historical contexts to Joyce and "The Dead," a survey of critical responses to the story since its initial publication, and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms.