Those of you who think that reading James Joyce is a challenging endeavor should start with his early works, like “The Dubliners”. This collection of short stories was published at the beginning of the 19th century when the nationalist movement was intense in Dublin.  

The fifteen stories are narrated by different characters and have different themes. The first ones are told by children, and then the adults take over as the narrators. So one may say that the book develops from the birth of identity, throughout adolescence when a person learns to understand and accept himself, and into maturity period when the values are already set and developed.

The book is a manifestation of life as it is. Life as a diversity of experiences, and life as a set of moments. It is full of small people and alpha males, there are dull days and bright evenings, romantic relationships and cold marriages. Dublin is about all these concepts and much more. It is a city full of life that goes beyond these 15 short stories.

It’s impossible not to fall in love with the city based on the descriptions in the text. Its bright sunshine, cozy streets, bright shops, and enticing smells will make everybody want to book a ticket immediately.

These stories are about ordinary people who live through ordinary events. The only difference is that in real life readers tend to avoid or deliberately not notice these stories. We don’t want to know about death and pain our neighbors are going through. But we start thinking about them when reading the majestic text by the legendary James Joyce.

There are people who think that “The Dubliners” are best discovered as it is – without interpretation into Joyce’s style, without looking for his ideas of epiphany or drawing parallels between the roles the characters play in his other books. But if you are an experienced reader, you will find even more ways to interpret and analyze the text.

Author: Marshall Vasquez