Dubliners

Dubliners audio book cover

Dubliners is a collection of short stories by James Joyce, published in 1914. The fifteen stories were meant to be a frank and satirical depiction of the Irish middle classes living in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Joyce, who would later be acknowledged as the pioneer of stream of consciousness writing, here uses a more superficially realist style to give a crisp, yet intriguing description of characters. 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. These stories seem to depict the conflicts these influences generate in the lives of the townsfolk of Dublin, often quite unflatteringly. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. [link] The initial stories in the collection focus on children as protagonists, and as the stories continue they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. They also grow correspondingly more sophisticated and subtle in effect.

The stories

The Sisters – The priest Father Flynn dies, and a young boy and his family deal with it only superficially.
An Encounter – A schoolboy plays hooky and is confronted by a sexual predator.
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 girl 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 House – Mrs. Mooney successfully maneuvers her daughter Polly into an upwardly mobile marriage with Mr. Doran.
A Little Cloud – Little Chandler's dinner with his old friend Ignatius Gallaher casts a light on his own failed literary dreams.
Counterparts – Farrington, a frustrated copy clerk, 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.
Grace – Mr. Kernan injures himself in a bar fall, and his friends try to get him to go on a retreat
The Dead – At an Epiphany party Gabriel Conroy offends three women, and realizes that passionless people like himself are already dead. At 15–16,000 words this story has also been classified a novella.

External links

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Dubliners

The stories

Further reading

External links