Four Dubliners: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett | 
pickFascinating and readable critical analysis and synthesis. This book had its origins in lectures Ellmann gave at the Library of Congress in the 1980s and the theme seems to be the way in which each writer dealt with contradictions in their lives and work. Definitely worth reading for those interested in art and its creation, Irish literature and drama, European history 1850-1980. Much longer review at Goodreads & LibraryThing @bibliothecarivs.
bibliothecarivs Thanks, @Milara. Good question and I meant to address that. The title has nothing to do with the analysis. The author spends no time on Dublin's effect on the writers and does talk about their time away from Ireland - Wilde at Oxford, Yeats in London and the south of France, Joyce and Beckett in Paris. A better title would have been 'Four Irishmen at Home and Abroad'. (edited) 4y