Two Gallants (Story)
Encyclopedia
"Two Gallants" is a short story by James Joyce
published in his 1914 collection Dubliners
.
is walking with his friend Lenehan and telling him about a woman he has seduced. His attitude towards her is clearly scornful, and he is happy to relate that she pays his tram fare and has brought him cigars stolen from the house where she is a maid. Corley considers the arrangement superior to when he used to take women out and spend money on them. A rendezvous has been arranged with the woman. As Corley meets her, Lenehan appraises her at a distance, yielding an unflattering description of her physical attributes. Over a supper of peas, Lenehan thinks enviously of Corley and contemplates his own lack of achievement at the age of thirty-one. He dreams of settling down with a "simple-minded" woman. After eating, Lenehan wanders around a bit more before meeting up with Corley at a previously arranged time. Corley presents him with a gold coin that he has just swindled from the woman, or that the woman stole from her employer on his behalf. Unbeknownst to the reader until now, the pair have been planning to do this all along.
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
published in his 1914 collection Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....
.
The story
In the evening, a young man named CorleyLenehan and Corley
Lenehan and Corley appear in at least two works by James Joyce:* In the story "Two Gallants" from Dubliners* In the "Aeolus", "Sirens", and "Oxen of the Sun" episodes of Ulysses...
is walking with his friend Lenehan and telling him about a woman he has seduced. His attitude towards her is clearly scornful, and he is happy to relate that she pays his tram fare and has brought him cigars stolen from the house where she is a maid. Corley considers the arrangement superior to when he used to take women out and spend money on them. A rendezvous has been arranged with the woman. As Corley meets her, Lenehan appraises her at a distance, yielding an unflattering description of her physical attributes. Over a supper of peas, Lenehan thinks enviously of Corley and contemplates his own lack of achievement at the age of thirty-one. He dreams of settling down with a "simple-minded" woman. After eating, Lenehan wanders around a bit more before meeting up with Corley at a previously arranged time. Corley presents him with a gold coin that he has just swindled from the woman, or that the woman stole from her employer on his behalf. Unbeknownst to the reader until now, the pair have been planning to do this all along.