The Strong Spirit considers James Joyce's earlier writings, including Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, placing these texts in relation to the different British-Irish historical contexts immediately contemporary with them, and also the often rather different historical contexts with which they are immediately concerned. Gibson treats both Joyce and the history of the nation of his birth with great precision and understanding ... A work of exemplary scholarship, The Strong Spirit will be read with great interest by Joyceans and students of Irish literature, but should prove no less rewarding to anyone with an interest in how literature and history intersect.