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Dubliners (1914), a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce dealing with the moribund lives of a cast of mostly lower-middle-class characters through pointedly undramatic events chosen to illustrate the crippling effects of family, religion, and nationality. Joyce conceived the idea of a thematically integrated volume, and he continued writing stories in the same ‘vivisective’ spirit after leaving Ireland in October 1904. In December 1905 he sent twelve stories to the English publisher Grant Richards, but in 1906 Richards repudiated his contract. The collection was rejected by English and Irish publishers, but in 1913 Richards approached Joyce again, and Dubliners finally appeared in 1914. In letters to Richards during 1906, Joyce described the governing idea of the collection: ‘My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis.’

 
 
Wikipedia: Dubliners
Dubliners
The title page of the first edition in 1914 of Dubliners.
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The title page of the first edition in 1914 of Dubliners.
Author James Joyce
Language English
Genre(s) Short Story
Publisher Grant Richards Ltd., London
Publication date 1914
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) and Audio book
Pages Approx. 160 pages
ISBN ISBN 0-486-26870-5
Followed by Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1916)

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914.

The fifteen stories were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of the Irish middle class life living in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.

The stories were written at the time when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They center around Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character has a special moment of self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. [1]

The initial stories in the collection are narrated by children as protagonists, and as the stories continue they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people.

The stories

  • The Sisters – The priest Father Flynn dies, and a young boy and his family deal with it only superficially.
  • An Encounter – Two schoolboys play truant and are confronted by an elderly man.
  • Araby – A boy falls in love with the sister of his friend, but fails in buying her a present from the Araby carnival.
  • Eveline – A young woman abandons her plans to elope with a sailor.
  • After the Race – College student Jimmy Doyle tries to fit in with his wealthy friends.
  • Two Gallants – Two con men, Lenehan and Corley, trick a maid into stealing from her employer.
  • The Boarding HouseMrs. Mooney successfully maneuvers her daughter Polly into an upwardly mobile marriage with Mr. Doran.
  • A Little CloudLittle Chandler's dinner with his old friend Ignatius Gallaher casts a light on his own failed literary dreams. The story reflects also Chandler's mood upon realizing his baby son has replaced him as the center of his wife's affections.
  • Counterparts – Farrington, a lumbering alcoholic Irish scrivener, takes out his frustration in pubs and on his son Tom.
  • Clay – A maid, Maria, celebrates Halloween with her former foster child and friend Joe Donnelly and his family.
  • A Painful Case – Mr. Duffy rebuffs Mrs. Sinico, then four years later realizes he's lost the only chance for love in his life.
  • Ivy Day in the Committee Room – Minor Irish politicians fail to live up to the memory of Charles Stewart Parnell.
  • A Mother – Mrs. Kearney tries to create a perfect piano recital for her daughter Kathleen but fails miserably because she had no support from others.
  • Grace – Mr. Kernan injures himself in a bar fall, and his friends try to get him to go on a Catholic retreat to try to convert him.
  • The Dead – At a party, Gabriel Conroy offends three women and realizes in an epiphany, that passionless people like himself are already dead. At 15–16,000 words this story has also been classified a novella. The Dead was adapted to film by John Huston, written for the screen by his son Tony and starring his daughter Angelica as Mrs. Conroy.

Further reading

  • Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. Oxford University Press, 1959, revised edition 1983.
  • Burgess, Anthony. Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader (1965); also published as Re Joyce.
  • Burgess, Anthony. Joysprick: An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce (1973)

External links


Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


James Joyce's Dubliners
The Sisters | An Encounter | Araby | Eveline | After the Race | Two Gallants | The Boarding House | A Little Cloud | Counterparts | Clay | A Painful Case | Ivy Day in the Committee Room | A Mother | Grace | The Dead
James Joyce
Novels: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Ulysses | Finnegans Wake

Short stories: Dubliners | Play: Exiles | Poetry: Chamber Music | Pomes Penyeach


 
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Copyrights:

Irish Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dubliners" Read more

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