Dubliners - BookWyrm

mass market paperback, 262 pages

English language

Published Jan. 19, 1988 by Flamingo.

ISBN:: 978-0-586-08785-5

(1 review)

Dubliners was James Joyce's first masterpiece, a collection of stories dealing with fleeting episodes in the everyday lives of lower-middle and working class Dubliners that virtually invented modern narrative prose-and whose original printer destroyed it on the grounds that it was probably libellous or indecent or blasphemous (or all three).

Following his master Flaubert and building on his own earlier 'epiphanies' (attempts at directly reproducing moments of heightened experience in his notebooks), Joyce tried to eliminate the moralising, explaining authorial voice that had dominated Nineteenth Century fiction and to make his stories solely out of the speech and perceptions of his characters.

The stories deal progressively with youth, adolescence, young adulthood and maturity. Continuity is provided by the themes of repression, entrapment and revolt. But the unique wit of the Irish and the irony of those who have little else with which to fill their mouths also bubbles frequently to …

Dubliners was James Joyce's first masterpiece, a collection of stories dealing with fleeting episodes in the everyday lives of lower-middle and working class Dubliners that virtually invented modern narrative prose-and whose original printer destroyed it on the grounds that it was probably libellous or indecent or blasphemous (or all three).

Following his master Flaubert and building on his own earlier 'epiphanies' (attempts at directly reproducing moments of heightened experience in his notebooks), Joyce tried to eliminate the moralising, explaining authorial voice that had dominated Nineteenth Century fiction and to make his stories solely out of the speech and perceptions of his characters.

The stories deal progressively with youth, adolescence, young adulthood and maturity. Continuity is provided by the themes of repression, entrapment and revolt. But the unique wit of the Irish and the irony of those who have little else with which to fill their mouths also bubbles frequently to the surface, relished and splendidly displayed. --back cover

182 editions

Julie R reviewed Dubliners James Joyce 1914 by James Joyce

Much more interesting than I expected

4 stars

If you've been avoiding Joyce because of Ulysses, this book feels like a warm-up both for the reader and the author. There are beautiful phrases buried inside intriguing vignettes. Yes, the political and social commentary is there (and opaque for those of us without knowledge of the time period and history), but the stories are enjoyable independent of those allusions. (Except for Two Gallants. I felt like that one went right over my head, but I also noted the excessive walking similar to Ulysses.) I found a lot of pain in these stories, but I was also struck by the deep sense of community and family. Most of these "stories" don't have an ending as we think of story structure, but are open to interpretation and thought. Reminded me a bit of all those lessons in high school about the Lady and the Tiger by Stockton.