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.
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