Dubliners

by James Joyce

This volume contains the first ten stories from the Dubliners collection: The Sisters, An Encounter, Araby, Eveline, After the Race, Two Gallants, The Boarding House, A Little Cloud, Counterparts, and Clay.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories

Audio Cassette

Published January 1, 1999

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

[Dawn Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this ages ago. I was in English 101, a summer class. I did a presentation on this book and the professor pulled me aside and asked me what I was majoring in. I had no idea. She said my presentation on Joyce was one of the best she'd ever heard. So, The Dubliners was critical in changing my life. I majored in English and got my MFA in creative writing. I'm an author and my first book is coming out this fall. When see this title, this is the experience is what comes to mind.

Joyce is just such a fabulous writer. I loved the symbolism in this book. The characters eyes are always looking upward and it reminded of late Byzantine artwork. But his characters are also poor and everyday people, so it's quite relatable.

This is a great book to introduce Joyce to students, especially since Joyce credited with the literary term "epiphany." Also, Biblical...obviously.

It certainly changed my direction in life. I can't guarantee the same for you, but it's definitely worth reading.

[Milla Gaffney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories I grew up hearing about my father’s childhood in Dublin never fully resonated with me until I read Joyce’s The Dubliners. My dad’s Wildean tales of racing matchsticks down the gutter and stargazing were mirrored in descriptions of adolescent adventure and aspiration in the chapters “An Encounter” and “Araby”. As I got deeper into the book, I noticed a sense of repression pervading each tale, which starkly contrasted with each character desperately yearning for a more fulfilling life. The unique format of fifteen short stories facilitates the progression of maturity from adolescence to adulthood to old age; each chapter is riddled with the minutiae of everyday urban life across all classes. As the stories unfold and in some cases intertwine, the hierarchical class system is revealed, controlled by church and state with little chance for escape. Just like the maid at the party in “The Dead”, every individual is acutely aware of their position in Irish society. It yielded an entertaining read overall due to the classic Irish humor interwoven throughout the dialogue, as well as the varying plot lines and perspectives of the many characters. But what really stood out was Joyce’s attention to detail within every scene. In vivid descriptions of the streets, buildings, people and their reverence for authority – especially the Church – Joyce illuminates the repressed and downtrodden cultural mentality within Ireland. I am aware that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is typically the introductory novel to Joycean literature, but I believe the assortment of narratives in The Dubliners to be a quintessential representation of Irish psychology, and I will definitely delve into more of Joyce’s work in the future. Unfortunately, in my limited exploration of Joyce’s other works, I stumbled upon his more erotic writing, from which I don’t know if I will be able to recover.

[G.J. Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Joyce’s collection of stories about the people of Dublin at the turn of the 19th century was perhaps a little too subtle in parts for this reader. It is mainly a portrayal of the middle classes of those times and did not convey enough in depth information about the lower agricultural and serving classes to demand much of my interest. Having said that I found the last story entitled The Dead, to be the most intriguing and compelling. It was both and moving and revealing in its telling. As a collection of short stories this is probably one of the finest examples for later writers of the genre in its structure and pace for each episode felt complete and satisfying. Many of the stories leave one with lingering thoughts and considerations regarding the people that you may have met in your own life. The author touches upon several societal issues that persist today, such as feminism, class and racism, through his use of realistic dialogue.
As an introduction for me to the writing of Joyce I cannot say that I was engaged or entertained enough to turn to one of his later novels, but I daresay I will be reading one soon, if only to find out for myself why he has been so acclaimed by so many. I will admit, however, that some of the portraits that he paints with his words did leave me full of admiration for his literary skills and wanting more.

[Deleana]

The stories presented an unclose picture of life in Ireland.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really just excerpts depicting life in Dublin, more specifically of the middle class Catholic Irish, in the early 1900's. It took me a long time to read because I would just pick it up occasionally and read a few chapters. I like his writing style and unique characters, but sometimes you just wanted the whole story.

[Laia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Segurament si sapiguera més coses sobre el context d’aquella època haguera lligat més caps. No obstant això, m’ha agradat moltíssim, l’atenció al detall és magnífica i la manera d’escriure de Joyce també.

[Michael Jannicelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible for a Joyce book.

[Jack Coleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

My exploration of Joyce is over.Slogged through this one and turned over one Page of Finnagans Wake yikes!!!