Dubliners

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Summary: A poignant, unflinching portrait of life
Review: I had never read Joyce before, but I picked this book up and...I'm converted. The short stories hit their marks perfectly, with no wasted words. Can't wait to read it again!

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Summary: A wonderful collection of short stories
Review: If you read this book for no other reason, read it for the last short story -- The Dead. It is the most haunting and beautiful story I have ever read. It explores the human psyche, relationships between men and women, and the Irish-English conflict in social gatherings. Joyce is an amazing writer.

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Summary: I thought that Dubliners was great at 20. I now know that
Review: at 31 it's better. In my opinion the best story is "A Painful Case", which transcends a simple story of man meets woman...and becomes the most exquisite narrative of an introvert coming to grips with his own illusions. But it's all great...truly great, at least for a poorly educated American to understand.

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Summary: The best book ever written?
Review: What can I say? Within the pages of this modest, slim volume is everything a young writer needs to know about writing. IT'S ALL THERE. I've been reading this book once a year for 12 years and it's poetry, compassion, acute observation and sheer economy blows me away every time. And as for the characters, they are so real it scares me. You may end up preferring other books, but you will never be given such a clear glimpse of how good a Masterpiece can be.

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Summary: "The Dead" is perfect
Review: As far as I'm concerned, for depth of insight and wisdom into the foibles of humanity, Joyce never topped "The Dead." It is certainly the greatest short story written in the English language -- heartbreaking and immensely moving. It will never leave me. "The Dead" alone would be reason enough to buy "Dubliners" (if you've never read it before) but the other stories are also wonderful. His most accessible work by far.

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Summary: Great Stories
Review: Great writing - enthralling, captivating, etc. I can't give enough praise to this work. If you haven't read it, you should.

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Summary: Poetry in prose
Review: Dubliners is one of the books that has accompanied me all over the world. I cannot be totally objectif in a review of these collection of stories . I can say two things, though: for non-english speakers who are currently learning English, I suggest their reading Dubliners in its original language. Once they do it, they will know why I said so. And that the music, the poetry present in every line of this fantastic prose, to depict a moment of revelation (or epiphanies, as Joyce liked to call them) in the life of all those dubliners reaches moments of absolute perfection, like the final paragraph of "The dead" and its unforgettable image of snow "falling faintly and faintly falling" all over Ireland.

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Summary: Dubliners' Unforgettable Characters
Review: James Joyce's Dubliners has been described as a commentary on the moral and physical decay of Dublin. But if you have read it, you know that it is never wholly negative and often quite humorous -- somehow Joyce makes a series of human failures into an affirmation of existence. This is largely due to finely drawn characters. Gestures, idiosyncrasies and turns of phrase bring them to life; never stereotypes, but types that we know. When I first read Dubliners, my favorite story was "Araby." In it, the young protagonist becomes infatuated with a friend's sister and promises to buy her a present at the Araby bazaar, a promise that quickly becomes an all-consuming obsession. After a series of frustrating setbacks, the boy finds himself at the bazaar a few minutes before closing time staring uncertainly at a stall whose "great jars stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance." Everything, from his late departure to the patronizing tone of the clerk, seems to mock his once-coveted errand -- which leads to the epiphany encapsulated in my favorite line: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." What a perfect description of adolescent angst. Characters in the other stories are equally memorable. Meet Mrs. Kearney of "A Mother," who appreciates her husband "in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed." And Little Chandler in "A Little Cloud," whose smallness is conveyed by "the half-moons of his nails [which] were perfect and when he smiled you caught a glimpse of a row of childish white teeth." A great introduction to Joyce and a book to read over and over again.

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Summary: Perfection!
Review: My first encounter with Joyce was an English Lit. course in college, some twenty years ago now. We were assigned to read an anthologized version of "The Dead", and I initially approached it as one does all such reading requirements at that foolish age; however, this particular story ending up affecting me quite unlike anything I had ever read before. Dubliners is a beautifully written collection of thematically inter-related stories involving day to day life in early 20th century Dublin - stories that masterfully evoke what Faulkner described in his Nobel address as being the essential nature of true art: A portrayal of the human heart in conflict with itself. "The Dead" is the final story in the collection, and my favorite. I have re-read it numerous times and am so consumed by it that I'm not even able to provide an objective review. The final pages, from the point where Gabriel and Greta leave the party, to the end of the story, are absolutly stunning; the poetry of the words, the profound humanity represented - defies description. As in the final line of Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo" - You must change your life.

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Summary: snapshots of life in Dublin
Review: I have to admit that I didn't read all the stories(I did it for school as a HS junior, they didn't require reading all of them) and it's not the most exciting book. However, Joyce's stories are like snapshots of everyday life and I'm fascinated by that. He gives us vivid images of how unattractive Dublin is and tours into the minds the characters. Some stories are boring and hard to read but Joyce is good enough as a storyteller to give us pictures of life in Dublin that stick in your head.