- Paperback: 316 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; 1993 First Edition edition (24 Jun 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140186476
- ISBN-13: 978-0140186475
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 11.3 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 783,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
A wonderrful portrait of the city of Dublin. Joyce's first important work, in this he introduced the city to the world for the first time.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
"Dubliners" was completed in 1905, but a series of British and Irish publishers and printers found it offensive and immoral, and it was suppressed. The book finally came out in London in 1914, just as Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" began to appear in the journal "Egoist" under the auspices of Ezra Pound. The first three stories in "Dubliners" might be incidents from a draft of "Portrait of the Artist," and many of the characters who figure in "Ulysses" have their first appearance here, but this is not a book of interest only because of its relationship to Joyce's life and mature work. It is one of the greatest story collections in the English language--an unflinching, brilliant, often tragic portrait of early twentieth-century Dublin. The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life. Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It may be a staple of school English literature classes but in the case of 'The Dubliners' classic status is well deserved. I find it incredible that such a collection took Joyce so many years to get published, although upon further consideration the implied sexual perversion of 'An Encounter' and the criticisms of Irish culture, materialism and the Church may not have placed it high on an Edwardian publisher's 'to do' list.
Joyce's penetrating and unsentimental portrayal of Dublin, as told through the experiences of a wide cross-section of its inhabitants, is what makes this book great. It is an example of realism at it's most breathtakingly evocative. Eveline and Little Chandler perfectly sum up the complaceny of a city that has the vague desire but not the motivation or guts to change. Mrs Mooney, Corley and Lenehan embody the ruthless selfishness that facilitated the city's descent into immorality and 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' and 'A Mother' portray perfectly the political stagnancy and shallowness of the cultural revival that characterised the political situation of the time.
I could go on and on but the point is clear. 'The Dubliners' is as perfect an example of gripping literary portraiture as ever there was, surely one of the greatest books ever written. The harsh realism in every story will leave a potent aftertaste in your mouth and a vivid sense of character and location. My personal favourites are the cold self-isolation of 'A Painful Case' and the truly epic 'The Dead.' The lyrical closing section of the book alone more than justifies the cover price. If you read this book in school or university, dig it up and read it again now. If you haven't yet had the pleasure, buy it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book: the stories are succinct, clearly written, and moving. I also found the characters much more approachable and less high-fallutin artistic than the later novels. Perhaps this marks me as a mediocre aesthete, but that is what I felt.
Despite their simplicity, the stories are extremely textured. You get an idea of what it was like to live in Dublin when it was poor and what the people were like. It simply isn't about some weird self-important artist with a lust for personal power, whose concerns are so obscurely out of this world. You get lonely people who recognize their situation by their failure to help another who would have loved them; politicians lamenting the past choices; and a middle-aged man realizing he is shallow when confronted with the memory of his wife's first love (The Dead, which is surely one of the greatest short stories I have ever read).
These stories are so rich that I have read them many times, always seeing more. It is very fun to get a new edition that is supposed to be the way Joyce wanted them, which inspired me to read them yet again. Warmly recommended.
Despite their simplicity, the stories are extremely textured. You get an idea of what it was like to live in Dublin when it was poor and what the people were like. It simply isn't about some weird self-important artist with a lust for personal power, whose concerns are so obscurely out of this world. You get lonely people who recognize their situation by their failure to help another who would have loved them; politicians lamenting the past choices; and a middle-aged man realizing he is shallow when confronted with the memory of his wife's first love (The Dead, which is surely one of the greatest short stories I have ever read).
These stories are so rich that I have read them many times, always seeing more. It is very fun to get a new edition that is supposed to be the way Joyce wanted them, which inspired me to read them yet again. Warmly recommended.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I finally read Dubliners and saw that very appealing side to Joyce that won him so much admiration among his readers. Also, having read the book it is quite baffling to think that the book was considered risky by the censors/publisher - and the publication was delayed one full decade in its time.
This was written during the time before radio (and TV of course) in which the short story was king, and characters such as Sherlock Holmes were famous in short and entertaining stories, each of which were eagerly anticipated by the public.
In Dubliners we read a series of excellent short stories that cover a cross section of Irish society in Dublin at the end of the 19th century, including stories of young school lads, dead priests, families having dinner, and all night gamblers but to name a few.
Still after 100 years this is an easy and entertaining read that takes only a few hours to breeze through. For myself this is just great subway or airline reading - to be enjoyed in its simple reading without too much analysis - and it is still a classic that does not disappoint.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It is a Novel!, NOT Short Stories.
I would dispute many of the crits on this page. "Dubliners" is not a bundle of short stories, but a carefully structured novel. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Christopher H
Dubliners
Remembering having to write a review many years ago based on just one of the stories I was curious what I would think of the complete book. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Mr. Kevin Keeley
An Ireland of stories
A collection of Joyce's earlier short stories centred around the iconic city of Dublin.
Travel with Joyce as he takes the reader into worlds that show death, love,... Read more
Travel with Joyce as he takes the reader into worlds that show death, love,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Fenix Orion
Boring!
I was expecting short stories: they're not, they're vignettes. Quite well written, and fine if you want an insight into Dublin life and people around 1900, but not if you want... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr J H Beck
He stood holding her head between his hands...
This is James Joyce's first major work and it's a shame that we can't go back in time and experience it as the revelation it was. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Eileen Shaw
Beautiful and insightful
I absolutely loved it. It was beautifully written and very insightful and I will definitely be reading more of his novels after this. Read more
Published 16 months ago by CARL WOOD
Cultural Insights
James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories that provide a unique perspective of the lives of Dubliners. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Sleepystudent
Excellent tight prose, very readable
Some of the stories left me wanting more but on the whole the book paints a vivid picture of Dublin life and its social mores at the start of the 20th century; with each story... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Joe
Dubliners; difficult at times but...
Awright, well, i'm in highschool and i admit that i found the language and narrative in certain stories to be difficult to the point where in certain ( 1 or 2) ones i felt very... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Mr. L. J. Hunter
Beautifully written, bitterly disappointing
I rarely do this, but I stopped reading this book 120 pages in. It's beautifully written, but I just can't connect with it. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Mrs. S. Biddulph
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