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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. * 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.
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The stories
An Encounter – A schoolboy plays hooky and is confronted by an elderly man.
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.
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.
A Mother – Mrs. Kearney tries to create a perfect piano recital for her daughter Kathleen but fails miserably because she had no support from others.
Grace – Mr. Kernan injures himself in a bar fall, and his friends try to get him to go on a Catholic retreat to try to convert him.
The Dead – At a party, Gabriel Conroy offends three women and realizes in an epiphany, that passionless people like himself are already dead. At 15–16,000 words this story has also been classified a novella. The Dead was adapted to film by John Huston, written for the screen by his son Tony and starring his daughter Angelica as Mrs. Conroy.
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Further reading
Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. Oxford University Press, 1959, revised edition 1983.
Burgess, Anthony. Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader (1965); also published as Re Joyce.
Burgess, Anthony. Joysprick: An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce (1973)
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