Putting Joyce back into dialogue with other Irish writers of his generation, this book shows that his experiments with narrative styles and structures were a renegotiation rather than a rejection of earlier Irish conventions.

While Joyce is undoubtedly the best known, other Irish writers were also influenced by European movements in naturalism and decadence that were shaping European Modernism as it emerged in the 1890s. Reading Joyce's works in the context of often forgotten contemporaries such as George Moore, George Egerton, Hannah Lynch, Shan Bullock, Forrest Reid and Charlotte O'Conor Eccles enhances our understanding of their works as well as Joyce's, both thematically and stylistically, and shines a much-needed light on previously critically underexamined writers. By focusing on the transformation of Joyce from Irish writer to Modernist artist we gain crucial insights into why many of Joyce's contemporaries are not read today despite their initial popularity. This book utilises Joyce's troubled publication and reception history to identify the wider trends of the Irish short story cycle and Bildungsroman, thereby enhancing readers' understanding of the literary marketplace for Irish books in this period."