Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Gens de Dublin
    Unavailable
    Gens de Dublin
    Unavailable
    Gens de Dublin
    Ebook278 pages4 hours

    Gens de Dublin

    By James Joyce

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Une édition de référence des Gens de Dublin de James Joyce, spécialement conçue pour la lecture sur les supports numériques.

    « Nous arrivâmes ensuite à la rivière, et restâmes longtemps à nous promener parmi les rues bruyantes, flanquées de hauts murs de pierre, surveillant le travail des grues et des machines, rudoyés souvent, parce que nous ne nous garions pas, par les conducteurs des camions gémissants. Il était midi quand nous atteignîmes les quais, et, comme tous les ouvriers étaient en train de déjeuner, nous achetâmes deux gros pains aux raisins et nous assîmes pour les manger sur un tuyau en fonte, à côté de la rivière. Nous étions enchantés du spectacle du commerce de Dublin : des chalands qui se signalaient de fort loin par les volutes de leur fumée floconneuse, des bruns bateaux de pêche jusque par-delà Ringsend, et du grand vaisseau blanc à voiles que l’on déchargeait sur le quai opposé. Mahony disait que ce serait une farce épatante à faire que de se sauver en mer sur l’un de ces trois-mâts, et moi-même, en regardant leurs mâts si hauts, je voyais, je m’imaginais voir cette géographie qui m’avait été pauvrement enseignée à l’école, qui tout à coup prenait corps sous mes yeux. » (Extrait du chapitre 2)
    LanguageFrançais
    PublisherCandide & Cyrano
    Release dateJan 1, 2012
    ISBN9782806241863
    Author

    James Joyce

    James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. He came from a reasonably wealthy family which, predominantly because of the recklessness of Joyce's father John, was soon plunged into financial hardship. The young Joyce attended Clongowes College, Belvedere College and, eventually, University College, Dublin. In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, and eloped with her to Croatia. From this point until the end of his life, Joyce lived as an exile, moving from Trieste to Rome, and then to Zurich and Paris. His major works are Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegan's Wake (1939). He died in 1941, by which time he had come to be regarded as one of the greatest novelists the world ever produced.

    Related to Gens de Dublin

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Il Est Des Hommes Qui Se Perdront Toujours

      Feb 27, 2020

      Le nouveau livre de Rebecca Lighieri est un roman noir d’une grande intensité, au décor planté dans les quartiers nord de Marseille. Le narrateur, Karel Clayes, est beau au point que l’on se retourne sur lui dans la rue. Beauté qu’il partage avec sa

      11 min read

    • Article

      Les Hauts Murs De Penroc

      Nov 9, 2022

      Les Hauts Murs De Penroc
      13 min read

    • Article

      Jane Birkin

      Nov 4, 2020

      Jane Birkin
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bio Express

      Oct 3, 2022

      Naissance à 1961 à Saint-Savin dans l'Isère, dans une famille d'agriculteurs. Elle commence à écrire à 15 ans, mais ne trouve pas d'éditeur pour ses premiers manuscrits. Elle devient institutrice, à plein temps puis à mi-temps. L'Office des vivants e

      7 min read

    • Article

      Nocturama Eddy L. Harris

      Feb 25, 2021

      Nocturama Eddy L. Harris
      12 min read

    • Article

      Le Vieil Homme Amer

      Sep 27, 2022

      Le Vieil Homme Amer
      12 min read

    • Article

      Bernard Werber MÉMOIRES D’UNE FOURMI

      May 2, 2022

      Douze ans : c’est le temps qu’il a fallu à Bernard Werber pour écrire le premier tome de sa célèbre trilogie des fourmis. Ces insectes, dont il observe l’organisation dans le jardin de ses grands-parents, lui donnent à réfléchir sur sa propre conditi

      9 min read

    • Article

      La Grâce De Lagrasse

      Dec 12, 2021

      La Grâce De Lagrasse
      4 min read

    • Article

      « Oui, je suis Patrick »

      Aug 15, 2021

      Est-ce le dénuement de son visage ? On n’avait jamais remarqué qu’Amélie Nothomb avait des yeux si dévorants. D’ordinaire le rouge diva derrière lequel elle cache ses lèvres détourne l’attention. Là, rien. Elle se présente sans fard et sans couvre-ch

      7 min read

    • Article

      L’ange De L’automne

      Oct 18, 2022

      L’ange De L’automne
      12 min read

    • Article

      Martin Amis INSIDE STORY

      Nov 26, 2020

      Inside Story pourrait être décrit comme la suite d’Expérience, les Mémoires de Martin Amis parus en 2000, mais ce serait ignorer son statut hybride. Amis parle d’une « autobiographie qui se présente comme un roman » : le héros s’appelle Martin Amis e

      10 min read

    • Article

      Monica Sabolo LA VIE CLANDESTINE

      Jul 4, 2022

      Entre 1979 et 1987, le groupe terroriste Action directe revendique plus de quatre-vingts attentats en France, dont celui de Georges Besse, PDG de la régie Renault. Parcourant les archives des « années de plomb », Monica Sabolo pense tenir le sujet de

      7 min read

    • Article

      David Foenkinos LA FAMILLE MARTIN

      Sep 24, 2020

      Tous les romanciers vous le diront : ils ne font qu’écouter leurs personnages. Ce sont eux qui font l’histoire, réduisant l’écrivain au rôle de scribe. Dans La Famille Martin, effectivement, ils font ce qu’ils veulent de l’auteur. Enfin, du narrateur

      9 min read

    • Article

      Nocturama AURÉLIEN BELLANGER

      Aug 31, 2021

      Nocturama AURÉLIEN BELLANGER
      8 min read

    • Article

      Trop Tôt Pour Mourir

      Jun 8, 2021

      Trop Tôt Pour Mourir
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ma Sœur, Ma Bataille

      Jul 20, 2021

      Ma Sœur, Ma Bataille
      12 min read

    • Article

      « Les Inséparables » : Morceaux Choisis

      Aug 27, 2020

      « Quelquefois Andrée me disait : “Je suis fatiguée de jouer.” Nous allions nous asseoir dans le bureau de M. Gallard, nous n’allumions pas, pour qu’on ne nous découvrît pas, et nous causions: c’était un plaisir neuf. Mes parents me parlaient et moi j

      4 min read

    • Article

      les ON A FAIT 400 COUPE

      Jan 4, 2022

      les ON A FAIT 400 COUPE
      6 min read

    • Article

      La Vérité Révélée

      Jun 8, 2021

      La Vérité Révélée
      13 min read

    • Article

      Guillaume Canet

      Oct 6, 2021

      Guillaume Canet
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sorj Chalandon

      May 28, 2021

      Sorj Chalandon
      17 min read

    Reviews for Gens de Dublin

    4/5

    3,276 ratings95 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Sure, this collection was written by none other than James Joyce, but let's be perfectly honest: this book encapsulates what Thoreu was talking about when he stated the obvious: "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." After finishing this collection of failed lives, broken dreams, religious superstition, alcoholic excess, harsh memories, heartbreak, double-dealing, etc, I am going to need lots of ice cream to cleanse my palate of from the taste of a 'why even bother' mentality. And to think that my Irish grandmother was living in these very streets as this book was written! No wonder she left! Despair at its most relentless; as one character notes, "I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." And he was one of the lucky ones!
    • 5/5
      A reread of Dubliners, which I haven't read in half a century. A first read of the Norton Critical Edition with its supplementary materials. Dubliners could get 5***** on its own, but the supplementary materials in this NCE are absolutely superb, even better than the usually excellent NCE material. Especially good were Howard Ehrlich's " 'Araby' in Context: The 'Splendid Bazaar,' Irish Orientalism, and James Clarence Mangan" and Victor Cheng's "Empire and Patriarchy in 'The Dead'."
    • 4/5
      Sad to say, but I have never before read anything by James Joyce although I knew this was a serious omission in my reading life. I took the easy way out, and started with Joyce's short stories, Dubliners, set in middle class, early 20th century Ireland.I do like the way that some of the stories were loosely interconnected, the way a character in one would pop up again in another. And I liked the earlier stories, the ones with children and then adolescents, best. Some of the writing is lovely, and some of my favorite quotes are:“The barometer of his emotional nature was set for a spell of riot.”“He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense. He never game alms to beggars and walked firmly, carrying a stout hazel.”“He had dismissed his wife so sincerely from his gallery of pleasures that he did not suspect that anyone else would take an interest in her.”Joyce's descriptions of characters were wonderful. To me, however, the stories were not, for the most part, especially interesting. I'd finish one and think, “Is that all there is?” Perhaps I'm just a reader who needs more definitive conclusion, more action, perhaps I just missed the point and am showing my ignorance. I'm going to give Joyce another try. But not just yet.About the specific edition I read – avoid the free Kindle edition. The occasional typo didn't bother me too much, but in the story “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” the free Kindle version was missing the entire “The Death of Parnell” poem, and that poem was integral to the story. Fortunately, I had an old copy sitting on my shelf, and I switched to it. However, my rating is based on my opinion of the writing, not on any particular edition.
    • 4/5
      A wonderfully eclectic collection of stories, all taking place in Dublin and all having to do with human relationships, be it between friends and family, spouses, parents and children, employees and their bosses, and so on. My personal favourites were An Encounter, A Little Cloud, Counterparts, A Painful Case, A Mother and The Dead. Of these, one is about an encounter between a strange old man and a boy, another about a demanding stage mother, one about an young man meeting an older woman, another about a man and wife and old memories coming to the surface. A few stories didn't engage me quite as much; such as one having to do with motor racing, another about a gathering of committee members, which are themes that hold less appeal for me. My first experience of James Joyce had been Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and, having difficulty making heads or tails of it, I had been discouraged from reading anything else by him, but I'm glad that another LT member (Cariola) recommended Dubliners, because the quality of Joyce's prose throughout is a pleasure to discover, and his attention to detail in describing various scenes and small, quiet moments are quite beautiful in their lyricism.
    • 4/5
      a lesson in accessible joyce. some stories are easier to get into. others are in his own impenetrable style. i started this in paper, finished on an e-reader. a vote in their behalf, i'm cylcing four books while commuting; i typically get to three in a round trip. i looked forward to 'dubliners' (and the others as well).
    • 4/5
      James Joyce has always been a very intimidating author for me. His books Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are infamous for how difficult they are to read. I decided to start with Dubliners and see how that went before diving into another one of his and I’m glad I did. Even though I approached it with trepidation, I really enjoyed it. I’m sure I’m not supposed to say this, but Dubliners reminded me of Maeve Binchy’s short story collections. Her books, The Return Journey and London Transports, give glimpses of the lives of Irish and English people going about their daily lives and this book does the same. Both Dubliners and Binchy’s collections give readers well-written characters that they care about by the end of the story. The difference, of course, is that Joyce’s writing it much more poetic, but still, they have a similar feel. It’s odd to think about how controversial this book was when it was first released. Its content seems so tame compared with today’s standards, but at the time publishers were turning him down because it was too “lewd” because there were references to drunks, etc. I think my two favorites in the selection were “A Little Cloud,” a grass-is-always-greener story, and “The Dead.” To me, Joyce managed to blend the three vital elements of a great short story: good characters, an interesting look at their lives and beautiful prose. Here are a few examples of Joyce’s wonderful way with words…“A dull resentment against his life awoke within him.”“But we are living in a skeptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generations, educated or hyper-educated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belong to an older day. ““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.”If you’ve been thinking of trying this author out, but aren’t sure where to start, I’d pick this one up and go from there.
    • 5/5
      Reading Joyce is like what reading was like when you were a kid - an almost physical experience. He is so good at creating an atmosphere, you can almost smell the air of turn-of-the century Dublin as you follow his characters through their quietly unsatisfied lives. 'Dubliners', in 15 sketches of hugely different people, gives you a very profound sense of what this city (and in fact the entire country) was like at the time, suspended in limbo; clinging to tradition in a sometimes mechanical way, yet yearning to be part of a bigger world. This is most pronounced in the story 'Eveline', where a girl is torn between duties to her family and the promise of a better, happier life abroad with her sweetheart. All in all, 'Dubliners' was a great read and something I'd recommend to anyone. I really like short stories and episodic novels (Dubliners falls somewhere in between I think, because the 15 stories add up to something bigger) because they allow you to catch your breath in between. I'm still a little anxious to touch 'Ulysses', its hugeness and impenetrability being rather legendary, so 'Dubliners' was my way to dip my toe in the water. I also think Irish history and culture are very interesting, and you get a lot of that (references, so keep wikipedia at hand) as well.
    • 4/5
      Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the Irish middle class. Each story is about a different person or group of people, and they are not really connected to each other in theme until you get to the last two pages of the book. At that point, you come to realize Joyce's purpose in writing this collection, and it all comes together for you.This is one of those books that I could not put down, had a profound affect on me emotionally at times, and yet, I doubt there is any one moment or character that will stick with me. In a way, that's the genius of it in that it perfectly captures the prosaic life of the middle class. In the end, one begins to lament the meaninglessness of his own life and the fact that most of our lives are not really worth telling stories about. Joyce celebrates this commonality in a moving way by telling it to us straight with little flourish, which would serve to make it maudlin. Come to think of it, I guess this book might just stick with me a little longer than I thought.
    • 4/5
      A collection of short stories from one of the darlings of the modern literary world, James Joyce. Though I mock, I do believe Joyce is deserving of his reputation (I just become irritated by some of the pretentious attitudes toward him that I discovered in literature classes) and his short stories are justifiably acknowledged as exemplars in that genre. Each of the fifteen tales depicts a slice of Dublin life from the early twentieth century, and all are colored with Joyce's judgment towards his native land. As he wrote in a letter, he felt that Ireland had become paralyzed, swamped in a nostalgia for the old days and an inertia that prevented it from the progress of other countries, and that Dublin, in particular, personified this attitude (my paraphrasing of his words). As a result, many of these stories have characters who are longing for change, or dream of bettering themselves, but in the final analysis are stuck in their situation and make no forward movement whatsoever. This theme - and many others - link the stories. They also have a progression that Joyce himself explicated, as the stories move from childhood to adolescence and adulthood, ending with stories about public life. Narratively, however, each piece stands alone, and the characters do not cross over. The way that these stories nonetheless are intricately connected through theme, symbolism, and style demonstrates Joyce's skill as a writer. They are very good short stories, and they are interesting as individual pieces and equally interesting to read for the more abstract connections that bind them as a whole."Dead" was my favorite. This is the final, and longest, story in the collection, and was written well after the others. In it, Gabriel attends a festive party at the Miss Morkans' house, where a tension runs beneath Gabriel's skin despite the jolly crowd. He has several painful encounters, and ends the evening with an unwelcome revelation from his wife that causes him to face mortality. I also particularly liked "Clay", in which Maria receives a sad prophecy and she's the only one who misses its significance, and "The Boarding House", the story where Mrs. Mooney uses unscrupulous feigned ignorance to marry off her daughter; I've read "Araby" so many times that I don't know if I like it for its merits or for its familiarity. Don't expect these stories to be mood lifters. Joyce was intentional about depicting negative portraits. His style is crisp, with lots of straight forward detail rather than lyrical flourish. He wanted to present life in gritty detail, often mediocre life, and the moral dilemmas and stagnation that he observed in his Dublin. These stories are crafted with fine writing and thematic resonance, and therein lies their value. Read them for their power and meaning, and enjoy the power of the short story form.
    • 4/5
      The most interesting thing about this collection of James Joyce short stories is not that they are accessible (in contradiction to so much of what Joyce has written); but that they are the epitome of the old cliché “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” That is to say, few of these stories really stand out. Yes, there are a couple of exceptions. But the majority are just okay stories. However, taken as a whole, these provide a fascinating picture of the town where they all take place. As the stories unfold, the people become more and more real, and the town takes on a shape.The intent of these stories was two-fold. The first was to stand on their own. Not all that successful. The second is to paint an overall picture, and that they do with much better success.It is said that this collection is a good introduction to Joyce. Could well be. As I say, they are quite accessible. But I can say that there is an underlying enjoyment to reading the stories that sneaks up on the reader.
    • 5/5
      Are you afraid of James Joyce? Have you heard horror stories from folks who have tried to read Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake? Take a deep breath and pick up a copy of Dubliners--or better yet, listen as I did to a stunning audio version, in which fifteen stories are read by Irish actors and writers, including Frank and Malachy McCourt, Stephen Rea, Colm Meany, Fionnula Flannigan, Brendan Coyle, and Ciarin Hinds. Trust me, you won't have any of the difficulties here, in this early Joyce collection, that throw some readers off his work: no stream-of-conciousness narrative, no sentences that go on for twenty pages, no quirky dialect that you can't decipher. Just lovely, often very moving stories about ordinary people living in Dublin in the early 20th century. Two of the best known, "Araby" and "The Dead," you may even have read in a high school or college lit course, and both are tenderly rendered by the readers. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      Joyce's simple stories keep one gripped. Wonderful collection and a great introduction to Joyce.
    • 3/5
      I like James Joyce's writing much more when he's speaking as a child than as an adult; his child-narrators seem to embrace a certain delicacy and sense of wonder that I find riveting. Meanwhile, his adult narrators seem to me to be about as flat as the adult characters seem in the earlier stories. I read the Norton Critical edition, which had some really awful, distracting notes--terms constantly and unnecessarily defined, story elements explained in an uncomplex and possibly incorrect way (ex: in "An Encounter" the notes tell us that green is a signal for homosexuality, though the text by itself would leave this wonderfully open to interpretation).
    • 4/5
      Several short stories set in Joyce's hometown of Dublin, Ireland. His stories capture the essence of human nature; from all classes of society and different aspects of life. His stories entail happiness and love to sympathy and remorse, to regret and loss. Each story encompassing a different emotion and leaving the reader feeling enraged and melancholy amongst others. Written in the early 1900’s yet the stories can be relevant to current times.
    • 4/5
      DublinersJames JoyceAug 14, 2010 Joyce writes of the characters in Dublin in the first years of the 20th century, before the great war. His people are ordinary, poor or middle class, often unhappy and wishing for better times. The protagonist in his story “A Painful Case” realizes much too late what he meant to another woman, and realizes he was unable to grasp life as he wished to. The story in the “Dead” seems to be about something else until the end, when it becomes one again of unrequited love and loss. The stories often end without a clear resolution, a question in the mind of the reader about the fate of the characters, or the meaning of the events. They are absorbing, and emotionally affecting.
    • 4/5
      848 Dubliners, by James Joyce (read 17 Apr 1966) Some of this book was very good. They are short stories, and, of course the trouble with short story books is that one has to start over with each story. Probably the best in this volume was "The Dead," though only in its ending did I note a sudden sensation of feeling in myself. The ending: "Yes, the newspapers were right, snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling in every part of the dark neutral plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bay of Allen and, further westward, softly falling into the dark, mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lovely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. 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." If I were Irish, what an orgy of feeling would Ireland rouse in me!
    • 4/5
      Unassuming stories of everyday life, and from every phase of life. Some are vignettes, some almost feel underwhelming... but intentionally so.I have to say, though, that 'The Dead' is a GREAT story. It is one of the best stories I've ever read, and touches on the themes of all the other stories for a powerful and resonating close. And it starts out so much like the other ones, like a vignette, but then it continues past that vignette and goes deep into the character's psyches.I also liked 'A Painful Case', where an unlikeable old man couldn't bring himself to love a woman due to his own hangups until she is dead, and 'Little Cloud', in which a man realizes the mundane-ness of his life in comparison to his famous friend who just came back to Dublin for a visit. However, the worst of these stories are rather boring. The weight of the everyday dialogue and references to obscure irish politicians of the day doesn't help a story like 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' which takes many pages to go no-where and say nothing interesting in the process.
    • 3/5
      Capturing the essence of middle-class Ireland in the early 1900s, this is a collection of 15 short stories changing in mood and character, but constant in theme. The age of the protagonists rises from the first story to the last, but all are engaged in some sort of defining internal moment or thought. The last story, The Dead was perhaps the most profound example of this, but it is possible to capture that defining moment in each tale. The Dead was also the most moving story, for me, although I was also touched and disturbed by both A Painful Case and Clay. I confess, not being an appreciator of Irish Lit, most of the rest of the stories did little for me, but I am in awe of Joyce’s short story telling ability, nonetheless.
    • 3/5
      I don't think the fifteen separate stories in this book will stick in my mind, but the general feeling most likely will. The feeling of Ireland around 1900, seen from different positions in society. Teenagers skipping school, boys and girls in love, workers, politicians, religious disputes, elite dinners. An interesting book.
    • 4/5
      A collection of short stories, each depicting a "Dubliner," this is arguably the most accessible Joyce. But Joyce can be a tough read if you aren't prepared for it. That's why I think this collection of shorts format is a great place to begin to see if you like Joyce. Joyce did NOT write to be accessible, though. It's work reading Joyce. For some it's a labor of love. For others it's just work. For me, it's just work.
    • 5/5
      There is so very much which can be said about the power of Joyce's early style and the fact that it's equally present in the very shortest story of the collection, "Evaline," and the longest, most novelistic story, "The Dead." But many people have already said whatever I could say. Instead I will merely offer up the following; Dubliners taught me what a short story has the potential to be.
    • 5/5
      Melancholy stories of working class Irish men and their beleaguered women. Incredibly beautiful sentences about somewhat sad lives.
    • 5/5
      I have owned Joyce's Ulysses since I was 17 and have yet to get past the first thirty pages. I found his earlier book, however, to be quite readable.Characters and pacing, both brilliant. Exceptionally well crafted. I finally realize why Joyce is counted among the great writers.
    • 5/5
      My mother used to call me a Jackeen. I thought at first she was calling me a Dubliner, an Anglicised city boy, which is one of its meanings and insult enough from a Culchie like her. A Culchie is someone from the Irish countryside. Keep up at the back. It turns out Jackeen also means a drunken waster, which is more probably what she meant, but the two definitions are one and the same to her I reckon.Joyce, in The Dubliners, never uses the word but there are one or two of both types of Jackeen scattered throughout the collection of short stories.The book reminds me of an Ian Dury album. He makes the ordinary extraordinary. He takes the small and mundane moments of everyday life and turns them into celebrations of existence. The stories start with tales of childhood and convey the tension and detail that consume a child’s life perfectly and continue throughout lifetimes until the last story, The Dead, which finishes with the best piece of writing I have ever read.The perfect book to have in your pocket when waiting for someone in a pub. Preferably someone unreliable who wont turn up on time.
    • 4/5
      Like so many others, I read this collection in hopes of gathering momentum to attack Ulysses. I do think I acquired a better sense of his style, which is full portraiture of ordinary events. Little happens that qualifies as dramatic, yet the reader is still pulled along through the narratives. It is difficult to imagine why Joyce had such challenges getting this book published. But I suppose any group can blush at such an unromantic and truthful account of its members. Onward, I suppose, to Portrait.
    • 4/5
      Thoroughly enjoyed reading these short stories - the first I have read of Joyce. I've the centennial edition and the pages are cut in a serrated style which. is. AMAZING.What I didn't like, however, was the "Index" at the back of the book explaining Irish colloquialisms, which I obviously didn't mind, but it also felt the need to refer to every street name and bible/religious tones - something I tired of checking halfway through the book. Man, did that drag.
    • 5/5
      Reading this collection was the first step of my master plan to tackle Mount Ulysses. Dubliners is said to be Joyce's most accessible work in addition to his earliest, so it seemed like the logical place to start. The reading is easy, but I was no further than the end of the first story, "The Sisters", when I turned to Sparknotes.com to ensure I wasn't missing something. Joyce purposely outlines and hints but doesn't fill in the whole puzzle; nothing much seems to happen, and in a sense that's the point. There's only what's on the surface, the theme rather than the events: how death makes us feel paralyzed by its strangeness, its simultaneous presence and lack thereof. In the subsequent stories he portrays other things besides death that unbalance us, leaving us faltering and disconnected: loss of innocence, exposure to illness or madness, first love, rebellion, intoxication, dull routine. Through these episodes we may gain insight that promises to guide us towards living our lives more fully, but insight alone is not enough. Positive change requires action but these characters are doomed to paralysis: they sentence themselves to understanding the truth of their chosen lot while doing nothing about it. Some stories hit painfully close to home, triggering my own regrets about opportunities I've passed on or the risks I didn't take.This collection has more unity than just its theme: there is also the locale of the title with which the theme is closely associated. These tales are meant to describe the plight of Dubliners and the Irish in general as a downtrodden lot. Some of the stories such as "Two Gallants" speak to this more directly than others through symbolism and mood. I still find them universally applicable. There's also a subtle aging in how the stories are ordered, the first being that of a child, up to the last about man who has been married for several years. Every age must contend with the same choice placed before them, to live or merely to exist. It isn't impossible to make the right choice, only improbable because our greatest obstacle is ourselves.
    • 5/5
      I'm currently re-reading this book (the Norton edition) for perhaps the 8th time (or maybe more), in preparation for teaching it this fall semester. The wonderful thing about these short, pithy stories is that you CAN re-read them many times and get something more from them with every re-reading.

      At first glance, they're pretty depressing, realistic portraits of life in turn-of-the-century Dublin. But a closer reading reveals rich underpinnings of symbol, allusion, even allegorical contexts. And the reader who persists, getting through all the stories to the last one, "The Dead," will be rewarded with a final vision of Irish hospitality and celebration, closing with a sense of equanimity (though not everyone reads the final passage this hopefully).

      Joyce never fails to disappoint.
    • 4/5
      Joyce was a fantastic writer. That is until he perpetrated the greatest fraud in the history of literature by producing "Ulysses" and resting on his laurels. He followed with an even more outrageous work "Finnegan's Wake" which I believe tweaked the noses of the literati, making it so incomprehensible that it "must be good". Bull. His "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and "Dubliners" proved his gift. "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" show his sense of outrageous humor concerning his worshipers.
    • 5/5
      James Joyce's collection of short stories were written one hundred years ago, but when you read them they seem relevant and important today. These stories collectively offer a revealing glimpse into life in Ireland at the dawn of the First World War. James Joyce has an uncanny talent in portraying lives lived and loves won and lost. It's almost as if you are secretly watching these people from a window. You get a first hand view as these characters live their lives and interact with their friends and family. The stories are about different people, but the place is always Dublin. Joyce has portrayed Dubliners as they really were at this point in time. The descriptions are beautifully written, the characters are real and life-like, and the beautiful language connects it all. I had read "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" awhile ago, and was impressed then with Joyce's writing skills. But that was a novel and even though it was beautifully written, I was aware that he had the whole length of the novel to flesh out his characters. In these short stories the story and the characters are perfectly fleshed out in the space of the few pages for each of the fifteen stories. I couldn't really pick a favourite among them as each was an incredible masterpiece in its own right. A remarkable achievement and one that very few authors can achieve. In his time Joyce was known as a revolutionary author. His form, structure, language and creativity continue to influence writers today. I couldn't help but wonder how much top-rated authors like Alice Munro were influenced by Mr. Joyce's work. I definitely need to read a few more of this author's books. "Finnegan's Wake" and "Ulysses" are calling me.