Although ranging considerably in tone, mood and milieu, the fifteen short
stories included in this collection all centre around the city of Dublin and its
inhabitants at the beginning of the twentieth century. From the unsettling adventure
of two truant schoolboys to the crafty schemes of two con men, from
a young woman’s refusal to abandon Ireland and elope with a sailor to a
man’s moment of clarity during an annual dance party, these stories offer a
moving portrait of an entire world and era which are about to disappear.
James Joyce’s first published book, which he wrote when he was still in his
twenties,
Dubliners is far removed from the bold experimentalism of his later
work, but is essential for the understanding of the author’s development as a
writer and endures as a masterly example of the short-story form.
________
'His writing is
not about something; it is that something itself.'
Samuel Beckett
________
Read an excerpt from
Dubliners
