This is a brilliant collection of fifteen short stories through which Joyce limned the moral, social, political worlds of Dublin in the early 1900s. But it is more than that: Joyce explores the universalities of human nature and human relationships; the hopes, the fears, the desires, the accommodations, the lives wasted by “duty” and the pressure of conventions. Every character rings true, each one is drawn in his/her individuality. And as with the best of short stories, there are no final, neat resolutions, there are only the tendrils of the present weaving uncertain and unforeseeable futures.

I have feeling that you can monitor your progress through life by noticing which story in Dubliners you most strongly identify with. The fact that my favorite is "A Little Cloud" and has been since about 1990 or so I take as indication that I am still trapped in adolescence. All things in due time I guess.

Great Vignettes Of Dublin Life and A Great way to introduce yourself to James Joyce : Admittedly Joyce's better known works can seem quite daunting to the uninitiated but here in these short character sketches a reader can begin to understand what all fuss is about and enjoy some wonderfully written short stories in the bargain.

The stories are consistently good and from the very first where a young boy encounters the death of someone he knows for the first time the tales and the characters are engaging. Highly recommended !

A fresh and true portrait of lives. It seems to me though, that all the characters are pretty sad in this book. That is a little bit annoying. However, they are many kinds of sad, and sad in a really authentic way, so I am forgiving Joyce today.
It is sad though, to see Joyce's descent into incomprehensibility. I think his other books, by being so hard to understand except by very very educated people with the time to figure them out, reduce the scope and power of the novel. Nowadays, people associate high literature with thick language and other blocks towards understanding. How can a novel really say what it has to say though, if it can't speak to most people? Compare Joyce to Voltaire, who wrote very clearly but with much depth, and then compare the impact they each had on society. So you see, this is what I mean.

Joyce's other books are difficult (Portrait of an Artist) to impossible (Finnegans Wake). This one reminds me of Chekhov. Closely observed lives. . . no sentimentality, no phony psychology. I found it wonderful and wish that Joyce hadn't become such a pedant. Had he used his incredible talent to write more books people actually read, the world of literature would be the better. Instead he chose to write pedantic books for pedants. ( )