�Little jets of wheezing laughter followed one another out of his convulsed body. His eyes, twinkling with cunning enjoyment, glanced at every moment towards his companion's face.� �When he was quite sure that the narrative had ended he laughed noiselessly for fully half a minute. Then he said: � Well...! That takes the biscuit!� James Joyce's naturalistic, unflinching portrayal of ordinary working people in his Dubliners stories was a literary landmark. These four stories from that collection offer glimpses of defeated lives � an unremarkable death, a theft, a desperate plan, a failed writer's dream � yet each creates a compelling and ultimately redemptive vision of a city and of human experience. This book includes Two Gallants, The Sisters, The Boarding House and A Little Cloud.