After the Race

by James Joyce

One of Ireland’s most famous writers was James Joyce, a novelist and poet who’s best known for his avant garde classic Ulysses, which was inspired by The Odyssey but written in a completely modern, stream of conscience way. Joyce was also acclaimed for his poetry, journalism, and novels like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

This edition of Joyce’s After the Race includes a Table of Contents.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Ireland, Irish Literature, Audiobook

18 pages

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

James Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and a pivotal figure in 20th-century modernist literature, renowned for his highly experimental approach to language and narrative structure, particularly his pioneering mastery and popularization of the stream-of-consciousness technique. Born into a middle-class Catholic family in the Rathgar suburb of Dublin in 1882, Joyce spent the majority of his adult life in self-imposed exile across continental Europe—living in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris—yet his entire, meticulous body of work remained obsessively and comprehensively focused on the minutiae of his native city, making Dublin both the meticulously detailed setting and a central, inescapable character in his literary universe. His work is consistently characterized by its technical complexity, rich literary allusion, intricate symbolism, and an unflinching examination of the spectrum of human consciousness. Joyce began his published career with Dubliners (1914), a collection of fifteen short stories offering a naturalistic, often stark, depiction of middle-class Irish life and the moral and spiritual paralysis he observed in its inhabitants, concluding each story with a moment of crucial, sudden self-understanding he termed an "epiphany." This collection was followed by the highly autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), a Bildungsroman that meticulously chronicled the intellectual and artistic awakening of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, who would become Joyce's recurring alter ego and intellectual stand-in throughout his major works.
His magnum opus, Ulysses (1922), is universally regarded as a landmark work of fiction that fundamentally revolutionized the novel form. It compressed the events of a single, ordinary day—June 16, 1904, a date now globally celebrated by literary enthusiasts as "Bloomsday"—into a sprawling, epic narrative that structurally and symbolically paralleled Homer's Odyssey, using a dazzling array of distinct styles and linguistic invention across its eighteen episodes to explore the lives of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in hyper-minute detail. The novel's explicit content and innovative, challenging structure led to its initial banning for obscenity in the United States and the United Kingdom, turning Joyce into a cause célèbre for artistic freedom and the boundaries of literary expression. His final, most challenging work, Finnegans Wake (1939), pushed the boundaries of language and conventional narrative even further, employing a dense, dream-like prose filled with multilingual puns, invented portmanteau words, and layered allusions that continues to divide and challenge readers and scholars to this day. A dedicated polyglot who reportedly learned several languages, including Norwegian simply to read Ibsen in the original, Joyce approached the English language not as a fixed entity with rigid rules, but as a malleable medium capable of infinite reinvention and expression. His personal life was marked by an unwavering dedication to his literary craft, a complex, devoted relationship with his wife Nora Barnacle, and chronic, debilitating eye problems that necessitated numerous painful surgeries throughout his life, sometimes forcing him to write with crayons on large white paper. Despite these severe physical ailments and financial struggles, his singular literary vision remained sharp, focused, and profoundly revolutionary. Joyce passed away in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1941, shortly after undergoing one of his many eye operations. Today, he is widely regarded as perhaps the most significant and challenging writer of the 20th century. His immense, complex legacy is robustly maintained by global academic study and institutions such as the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, which ensures his complex, demanding, and utterly brilliant work endures, inviting new generations of readers to explore the very essence of what it means to be hum

Reviews

[Federico DN · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.

Not worth reviewing.

For the moment at least.

It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1914] [18p] [Classics] [Not Recommendable]
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Meh.

No vale la pena reseñarlo.

Al menos por ahora.

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1914] [18p] [Clásicos] [No Recomendable]
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[Luma Abu Hamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This highly allegorical story proves Joyce’s genius in depicting Ireland’s political position among its predominant ‘allies’ in nineteenth century Europe. He saw Ireland as “the heaviest loser”, for they can prosper and play but never on their own terms..

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I arranged my thoughts on this short, little story into a haiku:

"As the sun streams in,
Reality follows suit—
Boy, are you broke now?"

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming European sophisticates plunder Ireland for its hard-earned wealth.

The sentence that says it all: "Through this channel of poverty and inaction the Continent sped its wealth and industry."

Also the son of a successful butcher discovers the value of labour, and how easily it may be squandered.

[misael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prova de que um grande contista não precisa de um enredo extraordinário para construir uma obra memorável. Joyce no seu melhor.

[Andrei Vasilachi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"That night the city wore the mask of a capital"

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Randomly found this in audiobook form and decided to give it a shot since I'm actually trying to figure out if I want to read Dubliners. Funny enough it reminded me of The Great Gatsby. Which was weirdly unexpected. I enjoyed the rhythm of it, it paints a vivid picture of society. It's not mind-blowingly great, but it's good.

[Hari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sarcastic political story of Joyce.
+ Jimmy - Ireland: drunk, ignorant, lust after fame and money, in debt at the end, still happy and hopeful. His father got rich by giving up his political view and cooperating with English.
+ Routh - England: friend of Ireland. Winner in the end.
+ Farley - American: rich, hedonistic. Loser at the end! Why? Joyce underestimated USA?

No knowledge about French and Belgium and German and Hungarian role.

[Hasnain Zeenwala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jimmy (the protagonist) initially made me feel quite nauseated; how can someone be so spineless and obsequious. However, I felt a little sympathy for him. Haven't all of us been in situations, where we felt inferior and tried our best to hide that insecurity. Also, haven't we, sometime or the other, felt so pathetically unworthy of someone's company that our only option was obsequity.

[Felipe CZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Dubliners. After a race, which is an event of luxury, Jimmy Doyle seeks to enter a cosmopolitan society, but this ends in failure losing in games against an Englishman.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the Race by James Joyce

Ulysses- again and again



I am beginning to love the works of the magnificent James Joyce. Albeit, I am only talking about the “minor”, short stories, in preparation for the hard work of finishing Ulysses. After a few botched attempts, I am trying a new strategy. I read slowly thorough the first paragraphs, whereof I already know some expressions by heart. Here are some of them

- “Introibo ad altare Dei”

- “The scrotum tightening sea. Epi oinopa pontonAh, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the original. Thalatta! Thalatta! She is our great sweet mother. Come and look…

I am even getting some of the humor contained therein: the scrotum tightening sea…See??

Part of the problem with reading Ulysses is that so much of it presumes you have solid knowledge of Greek, mythology, symbolism, Greek, Latin… that simply escapes me.

After the Race is much more accessible than Ulysses.

In fact, we could be deceived by its apparent simplicity. In fact, come to think of it, what is wrong with a story being told in plain, simple language?

For a start, it does not make it on the list of the best books.

Ulysses, with its hard-to-crack complexity, heads the lists of the best books written. In order to read Ulysses, you have to have read more than two hundred suitable books- I am just making this up, from the top of my head- perhaps you could do it with ninety five or you definitely need four hundred and twenty?

In any case, you can’t proceed with Ulysses after you have read only Verne, Dumas, Brown and the like. Ulysses is just such an intense, soliciting novel that I am amazed and baffled by the idea that After the Race and Ulysses have been written by the same author.

I have just read this morning that Joyce was a mentor for Samuel Beckett and the latter inspired a deep feeling in the daughter of the former. That daughter was unstable and Beckett has tried to persuade her gently not to fall in love with him. The girl would later get sick and this unreciprocated love has helped with her downfall.

After the Race happens, well….after a race- in which four friends take part. One is French and rich, another is Hungarian and another hero is Irish.

They make for a very interesting quartet and we learn some things about each. They all share an interest, even a passion for cars.

There is a “reasonable recklessness „throughout the tale. I loved the story, but I wonder why. Now that I try a few notes, they are supposed to help me make sense of what was going on.

This is one reason psychologists advice writing as a good occupation for the mind. Among other advantages, it helps you make sense of events…and I was hoping, books.

There is not much going on, and what it is easily understood. I guess.

These guys have fun racing, this is how the story begins, with the cars approaching the city. There are beautiful descriptions, but I think that the Main Attraction for this reader is the simple fact that I can get through with it…no problem.

I have developed a Ulysses complex and a frustration, a feeling of failure attached to that novel. And now that I complete short story after short story by the great James Joyce, I feel simply…ELATED, mesmerized.

With self irony I could say that Joyce could have written about anything, the way they make honey and I would still be exalted by the mere fact that I read it, after failing the challenge of the hermetic Ulysses.

[#DÏ4B7Ø Chinnamasta-Bhairav]

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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~

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Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~

Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct

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" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”

Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous

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Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind

A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through

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[Anatoly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short story “After The Race” written by the most famous Irish writer James Joyce gives readers a lot of options for interpretation. We have here the description of one day, just a few episodes of life in Irish society.

James Joyce put in the first place not a plot but something which readers may see behind the text. The site genious.com gives people a tool for giving different interpretations (see link in the last line).

For example, see how one contributor of the story describes his/her interpretation of the meaning of this work:

“The Irish cheering of the French is misplaced and plain wrong; they didn’t even win! This demonstrates the perversion in the action of the Irish people … supporting the enemies of the England”

Here is the text of the story with the interpretation of some parts of the. narration:
https://genius.com/3462563

[Ru · Rating 2 out of 5]

As another reviewer mentioned, this is an allegorical short story about the political standing of Ireland in regards to country relations.

Without going into too much analytical depth, as plenty of others have already done, a group of men spend some time together, going "out on the razz" but in a gentlemanly fashion.
Each of the men represent a country, France, Hungary, America, Ireland etc and the plot and their interactions roughly aligns with their political relationships at the time.

Honestly, I didn't care for this one all that much. The symbolism was clever but I found it to be less enjoyable and engaging than those prior in the collection.

[P.H. Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Real review: 5.7/10
There is nothing profound after the race is a slice of life tale. It is a moment in time captured with excellent descriptors. However, several of them are out of place, and roughly 2% (factual) of the words used in this short piece are -ly adverbs, which are considered a no-no in modern literature and are used in a manner unbecoming of a great writer. They are slapped on to add something unneeded or does not match the context of the wording.
Overall, the story has its moments in terms of prose but should skip this story unless they are a completest.

[Night veil · Rating 3 out of 5]

𝜗𝜚 "After the Race" is rich people showing off, with Jimmy flailing to fit in and Ségouin breezing through like he owns the world.

Jimmy is all awkward ambition and shiny new money. He is starstruck and awkwardly trying to keep up, while Ségouin is effortlessly cool and a little superficial.



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[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jimmy Doyle lives with the potentially destructive desire for money and status. He fails in the end.

Joyce called Ireland, " This channel of poverty and inaction". After the Race symnolizes the daunting desire to make Ireland the equal to other countries.

[fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

fifth story of the Dubliners

this one is political, an allegorical commentary on how ireland's was exploited by the other europeans. but as a story is not very intriguing or exciting.

[Lou Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Special thanks to Classic Audiobooks with Elliot for another audiobook on Youtube.

This story was rich in discussing elements of Irish life and not much else. I didn't mind it. A very relaxing tale.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Dubliners.

A group of young men party late into the night after an auto race.

[Josha Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find this story very engaging. My mind kept wandering when I read it. I know it's a classic but it not my favorite of Joyce's work that I've read so far.

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of class envy.

[Izzie Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

How effortlessly it flows from his finger tips.

[lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a night! …

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and depressing allegory

[Iris Gozadinou · Rating 4 out of 5]

(5/15 i Dubliners)
Denne hadde veldig lave ratings lol, litt flaut. Men for meg så hjalp denne, etter Eveline, meg med å komme mer inn i det, og jeg likte dynamikken mellom karakterene.

[Julia Shanahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This man wanted to be seen but not seen, ya dig?

[McKinlay]

I honestly only read this to satisfy a readorama challenge and I'm 99.9% sure this wasn't meant to be read as a standalone even though that's how I bought it. So I'm not rating it.

[Hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me of "The great Gatsby". A group of debutantes living it up frivolously because they can.

[Danilo DiPietro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread for our Zoom group (originally read in 2015). Much more overtly political than many of the stories in DUBLINERS.