Dubliners – James Joyce
Dubliners – James Joyce – 1914
Posted by guillermo maynez on 24/7/2012, 18:23:03
I recently finished reading “Dubliners”, by James Joyce. I was taken aback when, after the fourth or fifth story, I realized these stories were written by a young man, between his 22nd and 25th years!! They sound like written by a man with much, much more experience of life. He was able to portray the insecurities, infirmities, vices, passions, etc. of people much older than himself, with a realism and penetration that amazes. Aside, of course, of his ability to make the reader live in the city, live the city, street by street by park by building by quay. “The Dead” has to be one of the best short-stories of all time. It makes you want to cry.
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Posted by Sterling on 25/7/2012, 12:14:10, in reply to “Re: Dubliners”
I haven’t read Dubliners in many years, but the book has always stayed with me, especially “The Dead,” which I consider to be one of the finest short stories ever written. (I also vividly remember “Araby.”) Off hand, the only short story that comes to mind that impressed me as deeply as “The Dead” is “Gusev” by Chekhov. (There are probably others that I’m not thinking of right now — Hemingway, Carver, Flannery O’Connor, et al.)
It is amazing now that Joyce had to struggle so long and hard to get Dubliners published. Not only does it now seem to be obviously a work of the very first rank, but it does not seem difficult, bewildering, or revolutionary like Joyce’s later works.
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