Rating: 
Summary: Great for Narratology studies, but otherwise mediocre
Review: Like many, I had to read this book as part of the requirements for my freshman course on narrative fiction in college. I was not impressed. Sure, for analysis on character portrayal techniques and center of consciousness theory, Dubliners is a useful and convenient tool; but as an example of brilliant writing, it falls very short. The fact of the matter is that some stories are better than others and to judge the book as a single work is a grievous mistake. It's surprizing there has not been a formal study of the many flaws in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Joyce's Classic Early Collection of Stories
Review: The first of James Joyce's books, "Dubliners" is a collection of fifteen stories written between 1904 and 1907. Joyce wrote the first of the fifteen stories in this collection, "Sisters," in Ireland in 1904. The story was published in August of that year under the pseudonym "Stephen Daedalus." Joyce wrote the last, longest and most famous of the stories, "The Dead," in Rome in 1907. The stories were published in the book known as "Dubliners" in 1914. While there are many editions of "Dubliners" in print, the definitive edition of the work is generally considered to be the corrected text prepared by Robert Scholes in consultation with Richard Ellman, Joyce's biographer. Random House publishes the Scholes edition under its Modern Library imprint and I recommend this edition."Dubliners" stands as one of the Ur-texts of modernism, a startlingly original collection of stories set in turn-of-the-century Dublin that began the Joycean literary project. That project subsequently moved through the increasingly difficult, and characteristically modernist, iterations of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake." Like those succeeding texts, the interested reader can find thousands of pages of commentary on "Dubliners," the study of Joyce's works being akin to a Talmudic undertaking, an undertaking that can, if one chooses, occupy an entire life. Joyce once commented that the stories of "Dubliners" constitute a "chapter of moral history" that represents the "first step towards the spiritual liberation of [Ireland]." He also said, "I call the series 'Dubliners' to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city." The stories are, in other words, inherently critical (although also, at times, appreciative) of the Dublin life that Joyce abandoned, living and writing as an expatriate in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zurich for nearly the entirety of his adult life. The stories operate on two levels. On one level, the stories are realistic narratives of every day life in Dublin. On another level, however, the stories are suffused with symbolism, with recurring, allusive images of spiritual, sexual and political meanings that mark a departure from nineteenth century literary realism and make "Dubliners" an enduring, and deservedly canonical, modernist narrative. The first story, "Sisters," begins with a striking example of the tone of the stories in "Dubliners." A young boy stands, in the evening, looking up at the shadows flickering through the window of an upstairs room where a priest is dying: "Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word 'paralysis'. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word 'gnomon' in the Euclid and the word 'simony' in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work." Thus, a vivid, realistic image appears in the reader's mind, but so does a collection of words that suggest meanings and themes that go far beyond the real, that capture physical and intellectual and religious undercurrents, the inner life of a young boy living in Dublin. "Sisters" is a brilliant story, as is "The Dead" and nearly every other story in "Dubliners" (excluding, perhaps, one or two, the worst being "After the Race," a story that Joyce reluctantly included in the collection). Realistic in its narratives, richly allusive in its language and symbolism, "Dubliners" is one of a handful of story collections that truly deserves the label "classic" and should be read and studied by every serious reader.
Rating:
Summary: A portrait of a city's soul
Review: These fifteen stories create a world. They present different aspects of the life of Dublin .They foreshadow the themes of Joyce's more extensive works, " The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake".
They present a picture of a city curiously static and dead, and yet somehow miraculously alive. It is quite fitting that the concluding story, the longest story really a novella is called " The Dead"
The stories present not simply a variety of characters and types but also insight into varying moments of life and soul's development.
About them and through them there is nonetheless an uneasy and unquiet feeling about life's fundamental disatisfaction. And this when the poetic intensity of Joyce's language pervades and presents throughout a quiet and deep beauty.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest and most influential collections
Review: Though now more famous for his later, immense, incredibly ambitious novels, James Joyce's early collection of short stories remains a classic - and for good reason. Joyce, as someone once pointed out, was and remains almost unique among writers in that he published only masterpieces. Granted, he took years (eventually decades) to write each book - yes, even this slim volume of 15 short stories. It paid off. Just as Joyce was immensely influential with his stream-of-consciousness (or interior monologue) style used in Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man and Ulysses (#3 and #1 on Modern Libary's Top 100 Books of the 20th century, respectively), and the... let us say, indescribable, style of Finnegan's Wake (which people are STILL trying to figure out), his style in writing these short stories became almost the archetype for short fiction in this century. Instead of focusing on action-oriented events in the story (or, as Edgar Allen Poe suggested, by trying to create a particular mood), Joyce instead centered on the simple, everyday mundane events of regular life. This not only made the stories seem realistic and believable, but also made them universally applicable. This is the reason why this is considered one of the greatest short story collections of all-time, and has been one of the most widely anthologized. A true classic of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: When I first started it, honestly, I couldn't stand it. Only until I was able to discuss it with some very learned people was i able to understand in a way that made sense. This, though frustrating initially, is an amazing thing. When one realized that almost every sentence that James Joyce writes is a work of art on its own, they are forced to acknowledge both Joyce's amazing talent and the beauty of the language when used to its full potential. I could say what the stories are about, but it is just something that you should experience for yourself. I will however say that the last story, "The Dead," is just amazing. It has to be one of the best novellas ever written in English. One word of warning, however: Don't read this book expecting a happy ending. Most all of the stories are somewhat depressing and shows the life that so many lived in Dublin.
|
