Charles Duff

Charles Duff (7 April 1894 – 15 October 1966) was a Northern Irish writer of books on language learning. He also wrote a popular book on hanging and other means of execution.

Early life Duff was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and attended Portora Royal School (now Enniskillen Royal Grammar School), which is located in the town.

Career Duff served as an officer in the British Merchant Navy in World War I and then in the intelligence division of the Foreign Office and Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. He resigned from the Foreign Office in the 1930s, claiming it was solidly supportive of fascism in Spain and ready to back a similar system in Britain.

Languages After he retired, Duff taught linguistics and languages in London and Singapore, while writing travel guides, histories, satires, and a series of text books for the active self-learner. He was fluent in seven languages. His many translations included works by Francisco de Quevedo, Émile Zola, B. Traven, Maxim Gorky, and Arnold Zweig. 1974, etc., and in the United States in 1999, with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens.

Duff's book James Joyce and the Plain Reader (1932) is an introduction James Joyce's major works that seeks to guide "the plain reader" through the author's oeuvre. Duff both situates Joyce within a long literary tradition and emphasises his originality. In describing Joyce, Duff draws on ethnic stereotypes, describing Irish people as motivated by "a restless and often fantastic imagination". Joyce himself owned a copy of Duff's book,

Works