Dubliners

( 85 )

Overview

This volume continues the masterly unabridged reading of the short stories. It contains the last five stories from the collection: A Painful Case, Ivy Day in the Committee Room, A Mother, Grace, and perhaps the most welt-known of all the stories (and the longest), The Dead.

Jim Norton has established a special reputation for his recordings of Joyce for Naxos AudioBooks. Released so far are Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a ...

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More About This Book

Overview

This volume continues the masterly unabridged reading of the short stories. It contains the last five stories from the collection: A Painful Case, Ivy Day in the Committee Room, A Mother, Grace, and perhaps the most welt-known of all the stories (and the longest), The Dead.

Jim Norton has established a special reputation for his recordings of Joyce for Naxos AudioBooks. Released so far are Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners Volume I.

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Editorial Reviews

New York Post
One of the classiest productions ever released . . .
Brazen Head
Caedmon has done a brilliant job in matching each story to a reader, resulting in fifteen readings as unique and personal as the stories themselves, each one glowing with individuality, color, and nuance.
Bookpage
Even better than reading Joyce is having Joyce read to you, and the readers here are superb...
Philadelphia Inquirer
Aha! So this is what Joyce is supposed to sound like.
Publishers Weekly
Frank and Malachy McCourt and 13 Irish actors bring Joyce's short stories to life in this well-produced audiobook. None of the readers employ a thick accent in the narrative portions, but for dialogue they let their imitative talents shine and their Irish lilts bloom. Brendan Coyle and Charles Keating, reading "A Little Cloud" and "Grace" respectively, give such wonderful expression to the idiosyncrasies of every individual voice that the listener is never confused even when numerous men are talking. Joyce wrote only sparingly in actual dialect, but most of the readers interpret his intentions freely and successfully. Fionnula Flanagan is perfect reading "A Mother," her voice shifting easily between prim and proper tones and fiery indignation punctuated with little sighs. It helps that Joyce's writing is so masterful that when Flanagan and the two other actresses read the three stories that revolve around women, their words sound utterly natural. Not all the performances are on the same level-Stephen Rea's cold, somber voice is apt for the meditative beginning and ending sections of the collection's most famous story, "The Dead," but too flat for the central description of a lively party. This audiobook creates the atmosphere of a fireside storytelling session that will hold any listener in rapt attention. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Joyce's classic has been recorded before, of course, but in this new version, each of the 15 stories will be read by a different person, including writers Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt, and Patrick McCabe, and actors Ciaran Hinds and Colm Meaney. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
**** In BCL3. This very legible and complete reprint of the Grant Richards edition of 1914 is priced at so low a price that stores will resent selling it. Salute to Dover. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
From the Publisher
"Cold is the heart that can resist a warm Irish accent like Gerard Doyle's, especially when that voice is offering splendid material like this Joyce classic. . . . Heartbreaking epiphanies abound, and Doyle artfully walks the vocal line between empathy and cool efficiency with his performance." —-AudioFile
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780140186475
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 6/10/1993
  • Series: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics Series
  • Pages: 368
  • Sales rank: 236,223
  • Product dimensions: 5.08 (w) x 7.86 (h) x 0.69 (d)

Meet the Author

James Joyce

Born in Dublin, Ireland, James Joyce (1882–1941) studied philosophy and languages at the Dublin College of the Royal University. He left Ireland in 1902 and went to Paris, but upon learning that his mother was dying, he returned to Dublin in 1903. After his mother’s death, Joyce taught school in Dublin and met Nora Barnacle, the woman who would be his lifelong companion. Joyce and Nora left Ireland in 1904 and traveled to Trieste, where Joyce taught languages at the Berlitz School. An attack of rheumatic fever in 1907 caused his vision to worsen throughout his life. Apart from one trip back to Dublin in 1912, Joyce spent the rest of his life on the Continent. Wealthy patrons subsidized his writing, and Joyce became the most influential novelist of the twentieth century. His writings include Chamber Music (1907), Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Exiles (1918), Ulysses (1922), Pomes Penyeach (1927), and Finnegans Wake (1939).

Edna O’Brien is the author of The Love Object, A Scandalous Woman, A Rose in the Heart, A Fanatic Heart, The Country Girls Trilogy, The High Road, and Lantern Slides. Irish born, she lives in London.

Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland. He left school at the age of thirteen to begin work in Ireland and England as a laborer. He returned to the U.S. at twenty and worked as a longshoreman and a dishwasher until he became an actor, appearing in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway plays, soap operas, films, and TV shows, including the HBO prison series, Oz, as well as hosting a radio talk show and writing a newspaper column. Among his numerous books are Singing My Him Song, Danny Boy, Voices of Ireland, Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland, and the New York Times bestselling memoir A Monk Swimming.

Biography

James Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882. He was the oldest of ten children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. Nonetheless, he was educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University College, Dublin, where he gave proof of his extraordinary talent.

In 1902, following his graduation, he went to Paris, thinking he might attend medical school there, but he soon gave up attending lectures and devoted himself to writing poems and prose sketches, and formulating an "aesthetic system'." Recalled to Dublin in April 1903 because of the fatal illness of his mother, he circled slowly towards his literary career. During the summer of 1904 he met a young woman from Galway, Nora Barnacle, and persuaded her to go with him to the Continent, where he planned to teach English.The young couple spent a few months in Pola (now in Yugoslavia), then in 1905 moved to Trieste, where, except for seven months in Rome and three trips to Dublin, they lived until June 1915. They had two children, a son and a daughter. His first book, the poems of Chamber Music, was published in London in 1907, and Dubliners, a book of stories, in 1914. Italy's entrance into the First World War obliged Joyce to move to Zürich, where he remained until 1919. During this period he published A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Exiles, a play (1918).

After a brief return to Trieste following the armistice, Joyce determined to move to Paris so as to arrange more easily for the publication of Ulysses, a book which he had been working on since 1914. It was, in fact, published on his birthday in Paris, in 1922, and brought him international fame. The same year he began work on Finnegan's Wake, and though much harassed by eye troubles, and deeply affected by his daughter's mental illness, he completed and published that book in 1939. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he went to live in Unoccupied France, then managed to secure permission in December 1940 to return to Zürich. Joyce died there six weeks later, on 13 January 1941, and was buried in the Fluntern Cemetery.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).

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    1. Date of Birth:
      February 2, 1882
    2. Place of Birth:
      Dublin, Ireland
    1. Date of Death:
      January 13, 1941
    2. Place of Death:
      Zurich, Switzerland
    1. Education:
      B.A., University College, Dublin, 1902
    2. Website:
      http://www.jamesjoyce.ie

Read an Excerpt

THERE was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse. He had often said to me: I am not long for this world, and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.

Old Cotter was sitting at the fire, smoking, when I came downstairs to supper. While my aunt was ladling out my stirabout he said, as if returning to some former remark of his:

--No, I wouldn't say he was exactly . . . but there was something queer . . . there was something uncanny about him. I'll tell you my opinion. . . .

He began to puff at his pipe, no doubt arranging his opinion in his mind. Tiresome old fool! When we knew him first he used to be rather interesting, talking of faints and worms; but I soon grew tired of him and his endless stories about the distillery.

--I have my own theory about it, he said. I think it was one of those . . . peculiar cases. . . . But it's hard to say. . . .

He began to puff again at his pipewithout giving us his theory. My uncle saw me staring and said to me:

--Well, so your old friend is gone, you'll be sorry to hear.

--Who? said I.

--Father Flynn.

--Is he dead?

--Mr Cotter here has just told us. He was passing by the house.

I knew that I was under observation so I continued eating as if the news had not interested me. My uncle explained to old Cotter.

--The youngster and he were great friends. The old chap taught him a great deal, mind you; and they say he had a great wish for him.

--God have mercy on his soul, said my aunt piously.

Old Cotter looked at me for a while. I felt that his little beady black eyes were examining me but I would not satisfy him by looking up from my plate. He returned to his pipe and finally spat rudely into the grate.

--I wouldn't like children of mine, he said, to have too much to say to a man like that.

--How do you mean, Mr Cotter? asked my aunt.

--What I mean is, said old Cotter, it's bad for children. My idea is: let a young lad run about and play with young lads of his own age and not be . . . Am I right, Jack?

--That's my principle, too, said my uncle. Let him learn to box his corner. That's what I'm always saying to that Rosicrucian there: take exercise. Why, when I was a nipper every morning of my life I had a cold bath, winter and summer. And that's what stands to me now. Education is all very fine and large. . . . Mr Cotter might take a pick of that leg of mutton, he added to my aunt.

--No, no, not for me, said old Cotter.

--My aunt brought the dish from the safe and laid it on the table.

--But why do you think it's not good for children, Mr Cotter? she asked.

--It's bad for children, said old Cotter, because their minds are so impressionable. When children see things like that, you know, it has an effect. . . .

I crammed my mouth with stirabout for fear I might give utterance to my anger. Tiresome old red-nosed imbecile!

It was late when I fell asleep. Though I was angry with old Cotter for alluding to me as a child I puzzled my head to extract meaning from his unfinished sentences. In the dark of my room I imagined that I saw again the heavy grey face of the paralytic. I drew the blankets over my head and tried to think of Christmas. But the grey face still followed me. It murmured; and I understood that it desired to confess something. I felt my soul receding into some pleasant and vicious region; and there again I found it waiting for me. It began to confess to me in a murmuring voice and I wondered why it smiled continually and why the lips were so moist with spittle. But then I remembered that it had died of paralysis and I felt that I too was smiling feebly as if to absolve the simoniac of his sin.

The next morning after breakfast I went down to look at the little house in Great Britain Street. It was an unassuming shop, registered under the vague name of Drapery. The drapery consisted mainly of children's bootees and umbrellas; and on ordinary days a notice used to hang in the window, saying: Umbrellas Re-covered. No notice was visible now for the shutters were up. A crape bouquet was tied to the door-knocker with ribbon. Two poor women and a telegram boy were reading the card pinned on the crape. I also approached and read:

July 1st, 1895

The Rev. James Flynn (formerly of S. Catherine's Church, Meath Street), aged sixty-five years.

R.I.P.

The reading of the card persuaded me that he was dead and I was disturbed to find myself at check. Had he not been dead I would have gone into the little dark room behind the shop to find him sitting in his arm-chair by the fire, nearly smothered in his great-coat. Perhaps my aunt would have given me a packet of High Toast for him and this present would have roused him from his stupefied doze. It was always I who emptied the packet into his black snuff-box for his hands trembled too much to allow him to do this without spilling half the snuff about the floor. Even as he raised his large trembling hand to his nose little clouds of smoke dribbled through his fingers over the front of his coat. It may have been these constant showers of snuff which gave his ancient priestly garments their green faded look for the red handkerchief, blackened, as it always was, with the snuff-stains of a week, with which he tried to brush away the fallen grains, was quite inefficacious.

I wished to go in and look at him but I had not the courage to knock. I walked away slowly along the sunny side of the street, reading all the theatrical advertisements in the shopwindows as I went. I found it strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood and I felt even annoyed at discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his death. I wondered at this for, as my uncle had said the night before, he had taught me a great deal. He had studied in the Irish college in Rome and he had taught me to pronounce Latin properly. He had told me stories about the catacombs and about Napoleon Bonaparte, and he had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the different vestments worn by the priest. Sometimes he had amused himself by putting difficult questions to me, asking me what one should do in certain circumstances or whether such and such sins were mortal or venial or only imperfections. His questions showed me how complex and mysterious were certain institutions of the Church which I had always regarded as the simplest acts. The duties of the priest towards the Eucharist and towards the secrecy of the confessional seemed so grave to me that I wondered how anybody had ever found in himself the courage to undertake them; and I was not surprised when he told me that the fathers of the Church had written books as thick as the Post Office Directory and as closely printed as the law notices in the newspaper, elucidating all these intricate questions. Often when I thought of this I could make no answer or only a very foolish and halting one upon which he used to smile and nod his head twice or thrice. Sometimes he used to put me through the responses of the Mass which he had made me learn by heart; and, as I pattered, he used to smile pensively and nod his head, now and then pushing huge pinches of snuff up each nostril alternately. When he smiled he used to uncover his big discoloured teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower lip--a habit which had made me feel uneasy in the beginning of our acquaintance before I knew him well.
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Table of Contents

Dubliners Introduction Notes on Introduction Note on Text

The Sisters An Encounter Araby Eveline After the Race Two Gallants The Boarding House A Little Cloud Counterparts Clay A Painful Case Ivy Day in the Committee Room A Mother Grace The Dead

Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Notes

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 85 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(40)

4 Star

(23)

3 Star

(10)

2 Star

(5)

1 Star

(7)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 85 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 22, 2007

    Travel Freely Within Old Dublin

    Dublin at the turn of the nineteenth century is this book's source of inspiration. Joyce here captures a sense of sadness, a sense of folly, and a sense of unsatisfaction in this collection of short stories. Fourteen were intended by Joyce for The Dubliners, and in this Bantom Books Reprint, the lyrically written, but awkwardly structured 'The Dead' has been included (it reads in two seemingly incongruent parts). My notables include 'A Mother', 'A Little Cloud', and 'Counterparts'. 'The Dead' is hailed by the literati as a great piece, and the second half of the story captures the distance that can occur in a marriage, the effects of a perceived affair on a husband and a woman's longing for what could have been if she'd married differently. This collection of stories is compulsory for any James Joyce reader, as it is a sharp contrast in style to Finnegan's Wake or Ulysses. I find the value in it, if one wants to be absolutely immersed in a different time and place, and read some passionately painful, realistic stories. The morals of these stories can be interpreted open-endedly, like most great art, and at times may be too subtle for the modern reader. One drawback to this edition. Shame on Bantam for not presenting the punctuation as Joyce intended. He originally demarcates his changed in dialogue with dashes, rather than standard quotation mark indicators. What is the point of reading the book how the author did not intend it read? Read the book, but choose an edition true to the author's intent.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 16, 2012

    Dubliners remains a fresh view of the people

    Added this to my collection because I remember enjoying it very much as the focus of a literature course at the university in the late 1950's or early 1960s. Joyce captures the essence of every day people doing every day things.
    Modern Library Series has been my source for so many classics.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 14, 2011

    A Must-Read Classic!

    I had to read this book for my AP Literature class, but I ended up buying my own copy to keep notes in..and also because I liked it so much. I loved the message that Joyce was trying to portray with this novel: Dublin (and society as a whole) was stuck in a never-ending circle, paralyzed if you will, of drinking, passionless love and lives, materialism, meaningless faith, etc. I had never read something quite like this before, and I loved the creative grouping of the chapters into a timeline type thing. My favorite chapter was Evelyn. All in all, it was a pretty good read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 23, 2007

    The Best Collection of Short Stories

    Dubliners is a wonderful masterpiece that is insightful and cascades with beauty through its words splashed upon the pages. My personal favorite story is 'The Dead' which is Joyce's transition from his more simplistic writing into what will later become his stream of conciousness and deeply imbedded symbolism style of writing that we see in Ulysses. I recommend this to anyone. Some of the short stories are easier to read than others, but there shouldn't be any great trouble in any of them. Each story has its unique beauty and truth about the human race.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 13, 2005

    The Dubliners is a revelation into the dark side of human reasoning.

    The Dubliners is a revelation into the dark side of human reasoning. It¿s a smashing book, when you are done with it you understand why people do stupid things, drink excessively or gamble (the reasoning behind it). This book is a benchmark in literary competence that everyone should read. I love this book because it gives the perspective of the lower class of Dublin children skipping school, alcoholics exedra. James Joyce has exceeded the expectations for word choice of the finest writers. It is a book of short, stories each chapter gives a different perspective of the same day in Dublin. James Joyce also wrote the Odyssey which by many standards is the hardest book to understand (in English) and is legendary for its complexity. The Dubliners retains all the richness and word of the Odyssey but everyone can (should) understand.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 26, 2005

    A rich book

    This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 15, 2003

    a good place to start

    A GREAT book. If it were a good book it would show this dank, depressive, captivating and surreal world. Instead it emerses you in this world. Joyce's writing is so spontaneous. I despise being gushing but it is Joyce. The man is a genius. (I realise I should refer to him in the past tense but his writing seems to suspened his intellect and reality in time). He never resorts to the writing-by-numbers tecnique of presenting characters with a view to evoking sympathetic sentiments from the reader. Characters aren't pleasant so that you want to be their friend or unsuccesful/destructive/pathetic for the purpose of making the reader feel smug, successful and sensible. I can't recommend this book enough. It's an experience. One which you may find tiring and depressing but which is completely worthwhile. And compared to Finnegans Wake it's a walk in the park! Allows you to experience Joyce's writing without completely perplexing you (speaking from experience!)

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 26, 2013

    more from this reviewer

    Dublin­ers by James Joyce is a col­lec­tion of short sto­ries pu

    Dublin­ers by James Joyce is a col­lec­tion of short sto­ries pub­lished in 1914. The sto­ries are loosely tied together and are con­sid­ered a clas­sic col­lec­tion in world literature.

    The book con­sists of 15 sep­a­rate sto­ries, the most famous might be The Dead (which was made into a movie by John Hus­ton star­ring his daugh­ter Angel­ica). The sto­ries touch many aspects of Irish life but mostly on how dif­fer­ent classes of peo­ple try to inter­act and the unend­ing quest for upward mobility.

    I read Dublin­ers by James Joyce as an attempt to read out of my com­fort zone as well as to read some well known “must read” books which I some­how (and by “some­how” I mean pur­posely) skipped over. I gen­er­ally don’t read short sto­ries, but I’ve heard so much about Dublin­ers that I decided to try it out.

    The first reac­tion I had to the book was not a pos­i­tive one, it seemed to me that Joyce wrote the book beg­ging for it to be ana­lyzed and dug into ad nau­se­aum. I don’t like those type of books, I like think­ing more deeply into a book and try­ing to read what the author meant, not nec­es­sar­ily what is writ­ten in black and white. How­ever, when an author takes unnec­es­sar­ily steps to make their work pur­posely dif­fi­cult to com­pre­hend, and then only by a few elit­ists, is sim­ply not my cup of tea.

    As I con­tin­ued to read though, I found myself lik­ing the sto­ries more and more. Joyce cer­tainly knows how to cre­ate an atmos­phere and describe objects in order to give the reader a full com­pre­hen­sion of what it’s like being in Dublin.

    Joyce seemed to be able to make a point just by set­ting up his scenes, rather than have his char­ac­ters make them for him. While Joyce does some­times does make explicit points, those only serve to enhance the implicit ones made dur­ing the story instead of stand­ing on their own, which in my opin­ion made the sto­ries very powerful.

    I am not very famil­iar with the times in Ire­land in which the story takes place and I had a feel­ing that I missed a few jokes and obser­va­tions, how­ever I still enjoyed read­ing the sto­ries and the harsh real­ity they present. Dublin­ers is cer­tainly a worth­while read, even if the reader strug­gles through a few para­graphs in order to gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the sto­ries and the time they take place in.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 25, 2012

    The Dead is easily my favorite short story that I've read. The l

    The Dead is easily my favorite short story that I've read. The last five pages of The Dead are probably my favorite consecutive five pages from any book. There are a few stories I didn't care for but Dubliners is worth it just for The Dead.

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  • Posted October 26, 2012

    highly recommend

    I am using this in my classroom. Great to have a complete set of the stories that we can hear as it would sound in Dublin.

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  • Posted June 28, 2011

    Terrible copy. Many mistakes

    I can overlook quite a few misspellings, but this has numbers in odd places, paragraph breaks in the middle of sentences, odd characters. Very distracting

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  • Posted January 14, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Simple yet provocative

    This collection of short stories is written in a very straight forward, no frills way and yet evokes Joyce's sense of his own people, their lives in their fullness. It seems very understated and therefore more true. Excellent reading. The stories, characters, and their tragedy really stick with you. Profound.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 29, 2008

    An Unusual Read That Leaves the Reader to Come to His Own Conclusions

    In this famous collection of short stories, James Joyce gives us a glimpse into the Ireland of his time. The stories are well-written, and deal with themes concerning human nature. One problem that I found, however, is that he never clearly portrayed some of the character's deeds as either good or bad. I suppose he wanted the reader to make his own decision, but it left me wondering what Joyce's intent was. With all of this said, it is a book that many will enjoy, and one that supplys us with a relatively clear view of the past. ---Ryan Robledo, author of the Aelnathan

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 12, 2008

    Dubliners: Joyce's love for the people of Dublin

    James Joyce is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. The stories in this collection reflect the way that Joyce saw his fellow countrymen. Many of the stories come from Joyce's own experiences and knowing this gives the reader an insight into the author's life as a boy and young man. This collection should be read before reading Joyce's other books as it will give the reader an introduction to his style of writing.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 11, 2006

    Good book

    This was an awesome book especially if you're interested in this sort of thing. While it is a great read and entertaining, it is also very very heavy and wordy.

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 7, 2005

    Interesting book, an acquired taste

    Some people say that Joyce is confusing or pointless. Well, the only people who would make that claim are either pompous fake intellectuals or fools. His books just cater to a different crowd. They are not written for people who wish to adorn their lives with 'Classic Literature' to make them feel cultured. 'Dubliners,' like so many other of Joyce's works, is a messy and cerebral novel. People who like having meanings and themes spelled out to them in capital letters will not understand the short stories. He expects that people will become intoxicated with the rhythm and flow of the language and not care about 'continuity' or 'a resolution to the conflict' in the stories. It's an unreasonable expectation for an author to have, but one that provides a deeper reading experience than most other 'intellectual' books. I'm giving it four stars because 'A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man' is better.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 31, 2005

    A rich book

    This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 13, 2005

    Dubliners is a waste of time

    Each story in this collection looks like it comes from a full novel, there is no direction and it becomes very confusing as you are expected to know the background before reading. This causes each story to be long winded, focusing on scenery as much as a full length epic, and it also ends each story before one can come to fully understand what is going on.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 26, 2003

    One of the world 's great story collections

    Reading these stories for the first time over forty years ago I had a sense of how beauty can be made of everyday life. I had a sense of that special kind of insight into the human heart which only great literature can give .I had a sense of writing as art and mastery. A whole world is created in these stories,and the image of Dublin and of Ireland which emerges is of a sombre and sad world uplifted by the longing to make it literature.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 24, 2001

    Outstanding for Anyone

    One needs to be Irish to grasp the full power of Joyce's book, The Dubliners, just as much as one needs to be Chinese to order chop suey. A tough, but wonderful read, it will educate those of all nationalities.

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