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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Interminable tome with pages of pure prosaic excellence.
Feels like a book best studied for what it represents, not for the mortal sleep it dishes out
Feels like a book best studied for what it represents, not for the mortal sleep it dishes out
3.5/5
Osservò la scena e pensò alla vita; e (come succedeva sempre quando pensava alla vita) diventò triste. Una dolce malinconia si impossessò di lui. Sentì quanto inutile fosse combattere contro la sorte essendo questo il peso di una saggezza accumulatasi nei secoli.
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Guardò giù per la discesa e, alla base, nell'ombra del muro del parco, vide delle figure umane sdraiate. Quei venali e furtivi amori lo riempivano di disperazione. Inveì contro la rettitudine della sua vita: sentì che era stato escluso dal banchetto della vita.
Osservò la scena e pensò alla vita; e (come succedeva sempre quando pensava alla vita) diventò triste. Una dolce malinconia si impossessò di lui. Sentì quanto inutile fosse combattere contro la sorte essendo questo il peso di una saggezza accumulatasi nei secoli.
---
Guardò giù per la discesa e, alla base, nell'ombra del muro del parco, vide delle figure umane sdraiate. Quei venali e furtivi amori lo riempivano di disperazione. Inveì contro la rettitudine della sua vita: sentì che era stato escluso dal banchetto della vita.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a collection of short stories by James Joyce, as since it is a collection, it is difficult to give it an overarching ranking, but I did enjoy the vast majority of these stories. There were several stories in this collection that are immensely profound to me, and that I will likely come back to later in my life; however, there were some stories in this text that severely missed the mark. While the stories do not connect with characters and plot, there are so overarching themes and motifs between short stories. I am a major fan of Joyce's writing and would like to read more by him. This book, however, I would not recommend to every one as Joyce's writing can be difficult to get into, but if you have interest in the form of the short story, Joyce, or Irish fiction as a whole, I would highly recommend this collection.
The Oxford Classics is such a weird edition in terms of notes.
Why am I made to guess which words I should be looking up in the back? Arduous cross-referencing
Too long for me to bother, I just read it and probably didn't understand a thing and that's a-okay
Why am I made to guess which words I should be looking up in the back? Arduous cross-referencing
Too long for me to bother, I just read it and probably didn't understand a thing and that's a-okay
A good place to start with Joyce, the other option being A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This set of short stories manages to convey an abundance of nuance (in other words, get crap past the radar) while remaining firmly focused on the exceedingly ordinary. "The Dead" is definitely the highlight of this collection, but the rest of the stories lead up to it in a series of thematic arcs, the first of which is a set of stories focused on childhood, then on adolescence, on young adulthood, and finally on the prime of one's life and accompanying decline, bringing us full circle in a sense to the death with which the first story begins. This loose sense of connectedness across otherwise unrelated stories helped to keep me interested as I jumped from one to another, and after I finished and caught my breath, I immediately found myself wanting to read the collection again from the beginning.
Note: In following Frank Delaney's podcast Re:Joyce, I got not only some much needed help in making sense of Ulysses but also a series of explorations relating to the short stories in Dubliners. Certainly these stories require no aid to follow (unlike Joyce's later work) but Delaney was certainly of help in teasing out another dimension of meaning from this work.
Note: In following Frank Delaney's podcast Re:Joyce, I got not only some much needed help in making sense of Ulysses but also a series of explorations relating to the short stories in Dubliners. Certainly these stories require no aid to follow (unlike Joyce's later work) but Delaney was certainly of help in teasing out another dimension of meaning from this work.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
sad
slow-paced