Dubliners

By James Joyce

Publisher Description

Dubliners, a collection of James Joyce's fifteen short stories, was first published in 1914. It provides a realistic portrayal of Irish middle-class life in Dublin and the surrounding area in the early 20th century. When the stories were written, Irish nationalism was at its peak, and there was a huge desire for a sense of national identity and mission. Standing at a nexus of history and culture, Ireland was being jolted by numerous converging ideas and forces. They focus on the paralysis theme and Joyce's concept of an epiphany, which is a character's transformational self-understanding or illumination (Joyce felt Irish nationalism stagnated cultural progression, placing Dublin at the heart of a regressive movement). Following Joyce's categorization of the collection into childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life, the following stories are written in the third person and deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older individuals. The first three stories in the book are narrated by children. Many of the Dubliner's characters later made cameos in Ulysses by James Joyce.

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25 Reviews

3.5

lasabra

Created 19 days ago

“I now understand why this collect of short stories took ten years to get published.”

Sara

Created about 1 month ago

““Dubliners”, by James Joyce A collection of fifteen short stories by Irish modernist author James Joyce. This selection of stories depicts middle-class life in early twentieth century Dublin, focused not on overarching plot or action but on small moments of self-idealisation and understanding. They are very loosely broken up by the age of the protagonists, starting with child perspectives and gradually progressing to elder characters. These stories were written during a period of rising Irish Nationalism, and these themes emerge throughout, a collective questioning of identity and purpose. I have to admit to a personal distaste for modernist writing (the dual abandonment of plot and punctuation drives me nuts) so this was occasionally an uphill battle for me but there is so much value in Joyce’s writing (groundbreaking revelation: famous literary icon quite good actually). I love the way he describes tiny moments of nature breaking in on human spaces, how he captures the humour and absurdity of conversation, and his refusal to handhold readers making them work to understand the language and inferences of another culture. My favourites of the stories included: ‘Eveline’ - a young woman trying to find the courage to run away with a sailor ‘Two Gallants’ - a man wanders about Dublin waiting to hear if his friend has managed to con money out of a paramour, a tale of lost romanticism and opportunity ‘The Boarding House’ - an enterprising woman who escaped an abusive marriage conspiring to marry her daughter off to an older man ‘A Little Cloud’ - an encounter with an old friend triggers an existential crisis about failed potential ‘The Dead’ - a man has an awkward time at a party, lusts after his wife, and then has a moment of fury and epiphany about human connection, life and death”

Annesha

Created about 2 months ago