Dubliners by James Joyce
James Joyce’s Dubliners, which is arguably the best collection of short stories ever written in English, paints a vivid and honest portrayal of “lovely dirty Dublin” around the start of the 20th century. These fifteen tales, which include such classics as “Araby,” “Grace,” and “The Dead,” dive into the heart of Dublin, the city where Joyce was born, capturing the speech patterns of Dubliners and illuminating their inner and outer lives with almost brutal realism. Dubliners is Joyce at his most approachable and thought-provoking, and this edition—approved by the Joyce estate and assembled from all available proofs, manuscripts, and impressions—is the final word. It accurately reflects the author’s original intentions.
Dubliners by James Joyce
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One of the pioneers of the contemporary short story was James Joyce. Expecting a beginning, middle, and the end is unrealistic. The tales depict the lower middle and lower class living in Dublin around the end of the 1800s. People are uneducated and live for convenience; they sometimes use Catholicism to fool themselves and other times to manipulate others.
The writing style vividly and clearly depicts the setting and the characters. A sense of completion about the portrayal at the conclusion of each chapter made it possible for these folks to stick in my mind.
The scene where Gabriel, who is so passionate and in love, believes that he and his wife Gretta will have a sexual encounter later that night is the heartbreaking scene that concludes the story. And when she begins to talk about the young man she adored, he realizes how ignorant and shallow he was in her eyes and how little he actually knew his wife. How little do we truly understand the people we care about? Something will always have an aura of mystery about it. I can now understand that there are multiple human stories hidden beneath each one—this is human archaeology. A good narrative affects us in layers that build upon one another without our knowledge.
The topics that emerge appear current, but what really makes this book appealing to people who are “nosey” about other people is the enjoyment that can be found in knowing the lives of others, picked and portrayed so skillfully.
