Dubliners

James Joyce is truly a brilliant writer. I liked all the nine stories included in Dubliners, but enjoyed some more than others. The last story included in Dubliners: The Dead was particularly haunting and beautiful.

Typical Oxford world's classics copy. But in kindle.

All the usual content is there. The introduction, the extensive explanatory notes, author's biography...

In terms of formatting it has one problem. There are no links in the text for the notes. You have to check them out at the end of the ebook whenever you decide to do so. I suppose that explains its low price at the moment.

Highlights include "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts," "A Painful Case," and, of course, "The Dead." The Penguin edition has some very helpful endnotes -- stories like "Clay" and "Ivy Day" might be incomprehensible to many readers without them.

The snow falling on the living and the dead...through vivid scenes and the use of contrast, Joyce tests our ideas of what makes a life meaningful and of its connection to love, that great tool for enriching it(...or easy excuse to stop searching?).

"The Dead" may very well be the greatest short work of literature written in English, but I'm sure many people have said the same for many other works.

Every story in the collection is worth the reading and re-reading.

Dubliners is more of a collection of character sketches than short stories, but as a whole can be taken as a tale of Joyce’s Dublin in the early nineteenth century. Some pieces are quite short – almost flash fiction by today’s standards – some resonate with poignancy, whereas others feel vague and underdeveloped. One or two were considered risqué for the time and were almost removed but Joyce prevailed and got them published. His ability to convey sensitive subject matter for his time is remarkable and, in the stronger pieces, he is able to depict character with a deft detail or two. Oddly enough I found the longest piece – which takes up almost a quarter of the book – to be the least satisfying, cluttered with superficial banter and too many characters. But overall, Joyce’s use of close third person for inner monologue – revolutionary when this book was written – stands the test of time and makes Dubliners well worth reading.

No one has ever bested this consummate Irish master at the art of the short story. It is a treat to revisit the stories introduced in most college modern lit classes as well as to find lesser known jewels.

Whilst reading The Dubliners I am also rereading some apocryphal gospels from the beginning of times.....and it is mindboggling to see how the latter has influenced our western culture, especially the Catholic world, and in the Dubliners the way catholicism has influenced families' everyday lives!! Extraordinary!!

This book was purchased for an English class, however I found the additional information added to each story incredibly interesting and helpful. If you don't know much about Dublin, this edition is for you.