Dubliners (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

It would be impossible to overstate the effect this book's had on both me and most writers I know, regardless of their particular genre or style. Few books in the canon have as much wit, pathos, and genuine regard for (and malice towards) the human condition than Dubliners. (Few books can claim to condense the universe into an Irish city like Dubliners, either.) It's not Joyce's most...more

It would be impossible to overstate the effect this book's had on both me and most writers I know, regardless of their particular genre or style. Few books in the canon have as much wit, pathos, and genuine regard for (and malice towards) the human condition than Dubliners. (Few books can claim to condense the universe into an Irish city like Dubliners, either.) It's not Joyce's most representative work, but, like the impressionist stuff Piet Mondrian was pumping out before he became a slave to the picture plane, it may stir up a hell of a lot more feeling in readers/viewers.   hide

The plot thickens!!!!!

I read this book in various Dublin pubs, which made it great fun, because I recognized street and place names in the book from walking around the city.

I loved "The Dead"!

Granted, the mastery of some of these works is such that it makes me seem an insufficient reader that I would rate it only four stars, but even given that "The Dead" may be the most stunning short story written in the English language, I still feel that Joyce's penetrating cynicism, his desire to have his characters pierce themselves with penetrating insight into their utterly...more

Granted, the mastery of some of these works is such that it makes me seem an insufficient reader that I would rate it only four stars, but even given that "The Dead" may be the most stunning short story written in the English language, I still feel that Joyce's penetrating cynicism, his desire to have his characters pierce themselves with penetrating insight into their utterly unredeemable failings, detracts from the value of some of the other works here.   hide

I love all of these stories, especially "A Painful Case" and "The Dead." Those two stories just affected me so much and touched something deep down within me, it is something special when an author like Joyce can do that to his readers. I find the language simply beautiful, and admittedly the stories are rather depressing but I still really enjoy them. Wonderful.

James Joyce, what a brilliant man.

Like I could write anything about this book.

Great book, campy ending.