Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Ireland became an independent country in 1922, so authors like Wilde (who died in 1900) were British citizens their entire life. The selection, though, was specifically of novels, and Wilde is of course best known as a playwright, and I don't think that his one novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", is likely to make anyone's "best novels" list! Joyce died in 1941, so can reasonably be considered an Irish author rather than a British one.
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Thanks, Harry. Wasn't considering the date of Irish independence when I made my post. But that makes things even more of a mess, doesn't it?
Ulysses was published in serialized form between 1918 and 1920, and in book form in February 1922, when Ireland nominally wasn't independent yet. So Joyce was a British citizen when he published it, wasn't he? And yet it may not be included in a list of the greatest British novels? Sounds a bit arbitrary to me.
So I think some of the 82 critics may have decided to err on the side of caution in the case of authors who are not totally obviously English...