Dubliners (World's Classics)

by James Joyce

published

March 15th 2001 (first published 1914) by Oxford University Press, USA

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binding

Paperback, 352 pages

url

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J...

setting

Ireland

isbn

0192839993 (isbn13: 9780192839992)

description

'I regret to see that my book has turned out un fiasco solenne'. James Joyce's disillusion with the publication of Dubliners in 1914 was the result o...more

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Michelle rated it:

04/12/08

bookshelves: european-literature, ireland

Read in April, 2008

Ah James Joyce, the dreams of language.............

" The Dubliners ", is a collection of fifteen stories with many characters. I prefered the final and famous story "The dead".
Joyce's writting in "The Dubliners" is neutral. He rarely uses hyperbole or emotive language, relying on simplistic language and close detail to create a realistic setting.
James Joyce made me travelled in Dublin during several weeks. Magic !! ........

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6 comments

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0141182458)

10/21/08

The worst of it is that I know I’ve read this before. Some of the stories I would have read more than once before too. So, why is it that so few of them have stayed with me?

There are other stories I've read in my life that I could nearly recite to you and bits of poetry I quite literally could recite – in fact, one of my less amusing party tricks is to do just that with endless tracts of The Waste Land. One of the less attractive costs of over-indulging in alcohol…

I thi...more

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John rated it:

08/03/08

bookshelves: avatars--gods--energy-sources, short-story-masters

Read in September, 1969

recommended to John by: a teacher, probably
recommends it for: readers who want to know the world in its noisy entirety

Brilliant and encyclopedic as James Joyce was -- the artist who, more than any other, hauled the ancient storytellers' calling to distill an entire culture into the 20th Century -- his work in prose began with this subdued, sequenced exercise in urban heartache, and it's the book I choose to celebrate for Goodreads. Yes, ULYSSES had its way with me, too, a walloping inspiration, there's no denying. But DUBLINERS provides the ur-version for what's become a fiction staple, the community portrait...more

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Erelin rated it:

04/12/08

Read in April, 2008

This Was my first introduction to famous James Joyce. I decided I should start with some of his shorter works before tackling Ulysses. I should start by saying that I am definitely in awe of Joyce's genius, his amazing, almost supernatural talent, and that I feel that there is so much an aspiring writer can learn from him. I definitely agree that he is amongst the greatest writers who have ever lived. So I bow down before him and give him all the glory he deserves. However, having said that, I f...more

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Samantha rated it:

01/28/08

Read in October, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I chose this book to celebrate Banned Book Week this year because I had read one short story from it back in college that made an impression on me.

It took me much longer than the allotted week to finish this short book, (1) because I am a slow reader by nature, and (2) because I annotated my copy. After the fifth story ("After The Race") I began to mark passages, scribbled notes down the margins, and finally summarized my impressions on the last pages, really so I'd have something to...more

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Nathaniel rated it:

12/29/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in December, 2007

I started this book on the plane to Dublin and finished it a day after I had arrived. It was an excellent complement to the city itself and a great introduction to the early writing and thinking of Joyce, and definitely an easier task than starting by jumping head-first into Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake.

My recommendation for the order of Joyce books to read: Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake (in order of difficulty and chronologically too, I think). I...more

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Christopher rated it:

(review of isbn 0140247742)

05/26/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: literature students, Irish studies, anyone who wants to be more intelligent

Genius. I do not use that word lightly. Yet Dubliners certainly earns Joyce this title, even if he had never gone on to write Ulysses. Easily the most accessible of Joyce's works, this short story cycle serves as a "how-to" manual for crafting amazing stories. All readers of English should be made to read this volume.

Every story in Dubliners has some sort of epiphany or moment of enlightenment. Joyce actually coined the word "epiphany" as it is u...more Genius. I do not use that word lightly. Yet Dubliners certainly earns Joyce this title, even if he had never gone on to write Ulysses. Easily the most accessible of Joyce's works, this short story cycle serves as a "how-to" manual for crafting amazing stories. All readers of English should be made to read this volume.

Every story in Dubliners has some sort of epiphany or moment of enlightenment. Joyce actually coined the word "epiphany" as it is used in literature. He also leaves very important gaps, or gnomon, within his stories that simultaneously pull the reader in and force him to make the bridge from his own intuition and logic. Also, one of the major impetuses for this collection is the concept of paralysis. Joyce himself wrote that not only Dublin but all of Ireland was mired in what he called paralysis. Each story shows how this paralysis manifests itself in multiple ways.

"Araby," Joyce's most anthologized story, appears in this collection. Strangely, it is not my favorite, only because I gravitated to other stories that I found to be superior. "The Sisters," the story that initiates the cycle, is of extreme importance and serves to orient the reader as to Joyce's plan for the rest of the work--paralysis, gnomon, and simony. "A Little Cloud" and "Counterparts" are unbelievably wonderful at hitting the reader when he least expects it with the epiphanic equivalent of a Louisville Slugger. "The Dead," which concludes the cycle, is not only the best of the collection but is heralded by many as one of the best examples of a short story ever rendered. I can only add my own assent to that opinion.

Caution: It would help the reader to know a little bit about Ireland around the turn of the twentieth century, Dublin, the Catholic Church, and a man named Parnell. Also, though it seems a minor detail, Joyce does not use quotation marks. Instead, he uses an emdash to introduce dialogue. It seems disconcerting to start, but by the second story you may find, as I did, that you actually prefer the emdash. Even if you never read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, or the nearly unreadable Finnigans Wake, you will have a working understanding of James Joyce. Believe me, you will be glad you read this important work from one of the greatest writers who ever lived....less

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Emma rated it:

07/22/07

Read in January, 1992

I never finished reading this book of short stories by James Joyce, but reading the first story changed my life. I read part of this book during the summer before or after my Senior year of high school. I was amazed by the way Joyce constructed his sentences and described ordinary things. The line "as the evening invaded the avenue" has always struck me as beautiful and I now actively seek authors who don't describe things in ordinary terms. While I had always been an active reader...more

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Trebro rated it:

08/12/07

bookshelves: books

Read in December, 1998

I rarely say that "everyone should read this classic" but I'll make an exception for Dubliners, one of the most complex books I've ever read and yet still one of my all-time favorites. I need to give this a re-read soon.

Joyce is at his best here weaving a story that flows without traditional narrative about those he saw around him. It is, to me, the pinnacle of modernism and that Hemingway guy can go fly a kite!

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Jessica rated it:

07/26/07

bookshelves: classic-fiction

Read in March, 2003

My displeasure with Dubliners, and my general distaste for James Joyce, is a long-standing fact. I won't waste space here by trash-talking "The Dead" like I usually do. The only story I really like in this collection is "Eveline."

I know, I'm the worst English major ever.

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zoe rated it:

(review of isbn 0141182458)

10/25/08

bookshelves: english-irish

this selection is one of the finest collection of short stories you will ever read, and "the dead" is arguably the best short story of the 20th century.
i would suggest that the first paragraph of the first story in the collection "the sisters" contains all the thematic elements of all the stories in this work: paralysis (as a simultaneous attraction and repulsion, the interplay of human desires), the light and dark imagery (suggestive of the epiphany--the revelation of one...more

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6 comments

Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 0486268705)

03/26/08

bookshelves: blog, classics

Read in February, 2008

I've always been curious about James Joyce's Ulysses (a.k.a. the greatest novel in the English language) and Finnegan's Wake (a.k.a. the greatest novel in made-up dream language). A beloved math teacher from high school raved about Finnegan, saying he read two lines a night--with a ruler and a Gaelic-to-English dictionary--and loved every word.

Still, it would seem reading Ulysses is not the sort of thing you just jump into -- rather you need to ramp up, to somehow gain a head of steam. My pl...more I've always been curious about James Joyce's Ulysses (a.k.a. the greatest novel in the English language) and Finnegan's Wake (a.k.a. the greatest novel in made-up dream language). A beloved math teacher from high school raved about Finnegan, saying he read two lines a night--with a ruler and a Gaelic-to-English dictionary--and loved every word.

Still, it would seem reading Ulysses is not the sort of thing you just jump into -- rather you need to ramp up, to somehow gain a head of steam. My plan was to start off with Dubliners (a collection of short stories and Joyce's first published work) and proceed to Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, before tackling big U.

I just finished Dubliners and it felt like a prelude, so that was appropriate. An insightful and, at times, beautiful prelude, but somewhat sketchy in places. I found "The Dead", the final and fullest story, to be the most compelling. Like most of Dubliners, "The Dead" speaks through the voice of the disappointed, static and provincial lives of the Irish middle class and builds to a poetic moment of illumination in its last lines:

"His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. [...:] His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

Unlike some of the shorter stories in the collection, Joyce gives himself some room to flesh out his characters, from the awkward and priggish but generally likable Gabriel Conroy to Molly Ivors, an outspoken nationalist who embodies the fire and forward-thinking spirit missing from most of Joyce's characters. Mostly Joyce, unlike nearly all other Irish authors of his time, keeps his distance from the republican politics that burst into armed rebellion only two years after the publication of Dubliners; in these stories Joyce almost seems skeptical that the Irish have the will or the stature to throw off colonial rule.

Many of the other stories are also excellent, although not particularly cheerful. "Counterparts" is a queasy portrait of an actively self-destructing alcoholic clerk that seems to suck all the oxygen out of the room as you read it. "A Painful Case", "Eveline" and "A Little Cloud" all describe lives of isolation and unfulfilled dreams with an uncomfortable familiarity. Even in the shorter, sketchier moments Joyce is a clever writer with interesting things to point to: an idea, a bit of description, an acidic character description. Onward!...less

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Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0141182458)

06/04/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Joyce fans, people who want to read the perfect short story: "The Dead"

This collection of short stories set in Dublin was written by an immature, youthful Joyce. He is not yet the man who wrote Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. He's young, and he's seeding the ground with what will make him famous. I actually adore these kinds of novels. The young work of a great master. Showing him in his process, and watching the maturity grow as you read over his work. I think perhaps it reminds me that these men were not luminous beings who were gifted naturally to pour out the page...more

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Daniel rated it:

04/14/07

Read in May, 2004

recommends it for: Unsure

While I realize this book is well respected generally, and remains (in addition to Portrait of the Artist) one of Joyce's more accessible works, I still fail to see any great staying power in it, and that is either my particular failing or the specific Irish culture to which I feel Joyce addressed his longing and expectations. If in forging that uncreated conscience of his race he was caught in a great an obsessive rumination of the failings of the past, then the future laid out for that fledgin...more

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Karen rated it:

12/13/07

Read in January, 2001

Before reading this book, I wanted to love Joyce. Portrait of the Artist kinda worked for me. Ulysses impressed me, but I never in a million years would have made it through without the guidance of an enthusiastic professor.

Dubliners displays just as much genius as Ulysses, I think. But while Ulysses' styling is obvious, painted over with a broad brush, unavoidable, Dubliners' is subtle, detailed, painted with fine brushes. You notice the artist...more

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erik rated it:

(review of isbn 0140042229)

05/20/08

bookshelves: literature

Read in January, 1976

recommended to erik by: Michael Miley
recommends it for: everyone

By 1976 I was pretty thoroughly immersed in wading through the Collected Works of C. G. Jung as well as those books which appeared to have been most influential in his thinking. Joyce, whose daughter Jung analyzed, was repeatedly referenced, usually to his Ulysses. I had tried that one in high school and found it too difficult, but a friend recommended his first publication, Dubliners, a collection of fourteen short stories and one novella depicting Irish life prior to independence.
The sto...more

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Simon A. rated it:

07/11/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2004

recommends it for: Readers of Geniuses

For my buck, "The Dead" is one of the greatest chapters/stories of all time. Also, it must be said, that unlike many other complex works by Joyce, these collective tales are all very digestible and enjoyable. Much like Sherwood Anderson's astute meditation on character and place in his novel "Winesburg, Ohio," this book does a fine job of encapsulating the longings of a generation.

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Kiersten rated it:

(review of isbn 0486268705)

03/01/08

I will never understand the literary world's fascination with James Joyce. I find him dull and just...well, dull. And it's not because I don't "get" him. I just don't think there's that much to get. But if you've just got to see for yourself, try Dubliners before, say, Finnegan's Wake. This, at least, is short stories, so I guess it's less painful.

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Anthony M. Bookfly rated it:

(review of isbn 0486268705)

06/15/08

Read in October, 1998

"The Dead" is usually called the perfect short story, a credit it deserves. But it works even better as the culminating piece in Dubliners, whose fifteen stories are structured in three parts: youth, adolescence, and aging. "The Dead" ends it. Literally. Dubliners should get the credit for perfecting the short story collection.

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Bruce rated it:

06/12/08

Read in January, 2008

Magnificent short stories by this master of modernist literature. Not as daunting as either Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, these are very readable and provide insight into early 20th century Dublin. The characterizations are superb.

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Dubliners (World's Classics)

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