The Boarding House The Boarding House "The Boarding House" is a short story by James Joyce published in his 1914 collection "Dubliners." Mrs. Mooney, separated from her husband, a butcher who descended into alcoholism, runs a boarding house for working men. Her daughter Polly entertains the boarders by singing and flirting with them. Mrs. Mooney learns that her daughter is having an affair with Mr. Doran, a man in his mid-thirties who has worked in a Catholic wine-merchant’s office for many years. On Sunday nights Polly, Mrs. Mooney's daughter, would sing with the various guests in the boarding house. It is noted that
The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants Trap" that the heroes and gallants set out to destroy in the 1879 original was still not destroyed by the end of the book. Instead, the novel ends on a cliff-hanger to entice its readers to purchase the next installment, which was published in 1891 as "The Sequel to the Five Younger Gallants" (續小五義). Both sequels enjoyed huge readership and were reprinted many times. Lu Xun believed "these works were written by many hands... resulting in numerous inconsistencies." Two alternative sequels to the original novel are: Shi Duo in his preface to "The Sequel to the Five Younger Gallants" denounced