Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Worthwhile read, but not particularly a page-turner, 30 May 2008
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Okay-ish, 24 May 2008
This collection of short stories is generally agreeable, though occasionally disturbing. Varied quality too, for instance, `The Boarding House' is excellent and the worst is probably `Grace' which is only average. The shorter of the short stories tend to be the better ones and end very well. Of course there is the long introduction (not Joyce) which does not necessarily enhance the appreciation. I hear that the early stuff is best so I will not be rushing to read `Ulysees'.


Moving, Funny, never Boring, 02 Apr 2006
A newcomer to James Joyce, I was looking forward to reading a work by an author associated so closely with the modernist " stream of consciousness" style of writing.
Joyce was simply a poet, and some sentences and passages in this book are better than Shakespeare etc. the 15 short stories are all set in Dublin, and all contain a range of different characters with different emotions, feelings, and indeed outlooks on life.
" An Encounter" is beautifully written from a child's point of view. Encountering someone who is essentially a paedophile will be a strange experience for a child, and, through Joyce, the boy simply tells the reader what he sees. Yet, the story is still disturbing and haunting.
My particular favourites are " Araby", focusing on a boy who is infatuated with a girl, it also contains the best line in the book in " but my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like strings running upon the wires"; " A little cloud", about a man who realises his failed journalistic career, and indeed the loss of affection for his wife; and " a painful case", again, like " A little cloud" centring on a man who has wasted his life, and, once he finds his true love, lets her go from him until it is too late when she dies.
The 15 stories are all poetically flawless Joyce's real strength here is that he both manages to write archaically yet keeping the reader interested.
Thanks to this book I now intend to read Joyce's other great works " Finnegans Wake" and then, his classic, " Ulysses".

Work of art...once you appreciate it, 12 Feb 2006
I read this book for my A-level English Literature studies. I`ll be frank...at first, I found it to be terrible, not so much that it was boring, but that at the end of some of the stories, nothing seemed to have happened. But, after we studied it in bit more detail, I began to appreciate it...really began to appreciate it. It, to me, is a masterpiece. Joyce captures moments in life, "epiphanies", which are so subtly written, yet so potent, that you really do see "Dubliners" as a work of art. In this frame of mind, all the stories make sense, they all bear out some meaning. By living out the lives of those caught in the vast social spectrum of Dublin, Joyce reveals to us not only individuals, but also human lives, in their joy, pain, hope, love, loss, etc. Simply beautiful.

A rich book, 06 Apr 2005
This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider
James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich. This is a highly recommended read along with THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, FINNEGANS WAKE, THE UNION MOUJIK, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE

Ulysses has been labelled dirty, blasphemous and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it not quite obscene enough to disallow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession". None of these descriptions, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in its own way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of the final chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you're willing to be buffeted, tickled, challenged and (occasionally) vexed by Joyce's astonishing command of the English language.

Among other things, a novel is simply a long story, and the first question about any story is "What happens?" In the case of Ulysses, the answer could be "Everything". William Blake, one of literature's sublime myopics, saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of inforgettable Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, loiter, argue and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream- of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river-- we're privy to their thoughts, emotions and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion-folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.

Both characters add their glorious intonations to the music of Joyce's prose. Dedalus's accent--that of a freelance aesthetician, who dabbles here and there in what we might call "Early Yeats Lite"-- will be familiar to readers of Portrait of an Artist As a Young Man. But Bloom's wistful sensualism (and naïve curiosity) is something else entirely. Seen through his eyes, a rundown corner of a Dublin graveyard is a figure for hope and hopelessness, mortality and dogged survival: "Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody really?" --James Marcus

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Worthwhile read, but not particularly a page-turner, 30 May 2008
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Okay-ish, 24 May 2008
This collection of short stories is generally agreeable, though occasionally disturbing. Varied quality too, for instance, `The Boarding House' is excellent and the worst is probably `Grace' which is only average. The shorter of the short stories tend to be the better ones and end very well. Of course there is the long introduction (not Joyce) which does not necessarily enhance the appreciation. I hear that the early stuff is best so I will not be rushing to read `Ulysees'.


Moving, Funny, never Boring, 02 Apr 2006
A newcomer to James Joyce, I was looking forward to reading a work by an author associated so closely with the modernist " stream of consciousness" style of writing.
Joyce was simply a poet, and some sentences and passages in this book are better than Shakespeare etc. the 15 short stories are all set in Dublin, and all contain a range of different characters with different emotions, feelings, and indeed outlooks on life.
" An Encounter" is beautifully written from a child's point of view. Encountering someone who is essentially a paedophile will be a strange experience for a child, and, through Joyce, the boy simply tells the reader what he sees. Yet, the story is still disturbing and haunting.
My particular favourites are " Araby", focusing on a boy who is infatuated with a girl, it also contains the best line in the book in " but my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like strings running upon the wires"; " A little cloud", about a man who realises his failed journalistic career, and indeed the loss of affection for his wife; and " a painful case", again, like " A little cloud" centring on a man who has wasted his life, and, once he finds his true love, lets her go from him until it is too late when she dies.
The 15 stories are all poetically flawless Joyce's real strength here is that he both manages to write archaically yet keeping the reader interested.
Thanks to this book I now intend to read Joyce's other great works " Finnegans Wake" and then, his classic, " Ulysses".

Work of art...once you appreciate it, 12 Feb 2006
I read this book for my A-level English Literature studies. I`ll be frank...at first, I found it to be terrible, not so much that it was boring, but that at the end of some of the stories, nothing seemed to have happened. But, after we studied it in bit more detail, I began to appreciate it...really began to appreciate it. It, to me, is a masterpiece. Joyce captures moments in life, "epiphanies", which are so subtly written, yet so potent, that you really do see "Dubliners" as a work of art. In this frame of mind, all the stories make sense, they all bear out some meaning. By living out the lives of those caught in the vast social spectrum of Dublin, Joyce reveals to us not only individuals, but also human lives, in their joy, pain, hope, love, loss, etc. Simply beautiful.

A rich book, 06 Apr 2005
This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider
James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich. This is a highly recommended read along with THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, FINNEGANS WAKE, THE UNION MOUJIK, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE

No big deal, but lots of pages., 19 Sep 2008
I tried and wanted to succeed, and initially enjoyed the book. But ultimately I come down on the side of the naysayers as I just found the book boring.

Ulysses continues the self-indulgent strain of the second half of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is much more irritating due to its excessive length.

For me this is the work of a lazy, sloppy writer, getting off on the easy hits of poetic language and never knuckling down to write a decent story. Yes it's inventive in its use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness, and Joyce's language is rich in its poetry, wit and wordplay (two stars for this). And yes, it provides a fascinating account of the minutiae of turn of the century Dublin, its people and habits.

But ...

I commits the cardinal sin of fiction - it's just plain boring.

Dickens, for instance, can be criticized for all sorts of things, but he knew how to spin a yarn, goddammit, always set out to entertain. Joyce's Ulysses is dull - the first 100 pages are interesting and inventive, but after that it's repetitive, banal and silly.

The chapter where Hamlet is discussed is truly awful - not good literature at all: I would rather read Stephen King. The last chapter is inventive (stream of consciousness, with no punctuation), but - again - utterly mundane and not at all entertaining.

The greatest book by the greatest author - period, 14 Jul 2008
Ulysses stomps over other works of literature like a brontosaurus. No book before or since has matched it.

In two minds..., 10 Feb 2008
I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, this is quite obviously a work of genius at some level, full of beautiful poetry, humour and truth about the human condition, all filled into a day in the life of the two (or three including the last chapter) main narrators.
On the other hand, there are so many allusions to things the average reader will be ignorant of as to render meaningless, which allied to the difficult narrative makes this a highly frustrating read.
In trying to understand parts of the novel that passed me by, I did some literary research and discovered the amazing depth this novel. Each chapter for example (apparantly!) has a theme based on colour and body part, and for this to be successfully woven into a story is a great achievement. The different styles and techniques used to tell the story is also highly impressive, while at the same time adding to the difficulty of the read.
The book is full of riddles and puzzles, some of which the answers to remain elusive to minds greater than mine. And there-in lies the problem; who has the time to spend reading and re-reading a book that is already close to a thousand pages long in order to fully understand it?

I have given this four stars rather than anything lower (and I very nearly did), to acknowledge that many of the problems of this book are down to the ignorance and lack of patience (or intelligence) of the reader, and indeed there are parts that are genuinely enjoyable through being funny, truthful or touched by genius.
However the nagging doubt remains that this book and the praise it has engendered is a partial case of the emperor's new clothes (and indeed the same could be said of modernism as a whole). At the very least, it seems that in being so tremendously ambitious, Joyce fell slightly short, as he himself is known to have admitted.

The subject of the book is humanity, 10 Oct 2007
The subject of Ulysses is simply humanity, the fact of being human. But then, Ulysses is full so of music, that it becomes a book which is almost possible to listen to. And Ulysses has so many poems embedded within the text that it should be called a poem, and not a novel. Finally, Ulysses has a lot of memory, but it is not the memory of the author, it is your memory. Every line, every page will make you remember episodes and moments, happy or not, of your life. At the end, Ulysses is a book about yourself as a human being.

Great concept, suffering read!, 13 Jul 2007
Fashion usually falls into two categories: one is conceptual - you will appreciate it as something to look at or even wear at a club - and the other is practical - you can actually wear them daily and the clothes suit your practical needs. Same with literature: one you will admire for the dare and conceptual quality, the other you will simply enjoy. The best literature, IMHO, is the one that manages to do both with panache. People like Flaubert or BEE at their best always have my undivided attention. Joyce I can respect, but don't ask me to read his stuff after Potrait of the Artist (a nice book, but not that amazing to begin with). I tried reading Ulysses and stopped halfway. This is prose-poetry sustained by a theoretical framework about what literature should really be like. It is meta-fiction. The last chapter is worth reading out loud just to try and understand what the modernists - Woolf, et al - had to rise up to in challenge. But after the first few chapters, this book becomes unbearable. Sure, it has wonderful paragraphs of sublime music - the sounds Joyce produces out of english syllables are miraculous - but I'd rather listen to music itself than read such a boring, boring book.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Worthwhile read, but not particularly a page-turner, 30 May 2008
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Okay-ish, 24 May 2008
This collection of short stories is generally agreeable, though occasionally disturbing. Varied quality too, for instance, `The Boarding House' is excellent and the worst is probably `Grace' which is only average. The shorter of the short stories tend to be the better ones and end very well. Of course there is the long introduction (not Joyce) which does not necessarily enhance the appreciation. I hear that the early stuff is best so I will not be rushing to read `Ulysees'.


Moving, Funny, never Boring, 02 Apr 2006
A newcomer to James Joyce, I was looking forward to reading a work by an author associated so closely with the modernist " stream of consciousness" style of writing.
Joyce was simply a poet, and some sentences and passages in this book are better than Shakespeare etc. the 15 short stories are all set in Dublin, and all contain a range of different characters with different emotions, feelings, and indeed outlooks on life.
" An Encounter" is beautifully written from a child's point of view. Encountering someone who is essentially a paedophile will be a strange experience for a child, and, through Joyce, the boy simply tells the reader what he sees. Yet, the story is still disturbing and haunting.
My particular favourites are " Araby", focusing on a boy who is infatuated with a girl, it also contains the best line in the book in " but my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like strings running upon the wires"; " A little cloud", about a man who realises his failed journalistic career, and indeed the loss of affection for his wife; and " a painful case", again, like " A little cloud" centring on a man who has wasted his life, and, once he finds his true love, lets her go from him until it is too late when she dies.
The 15 stories are all poetically flawless Joyce's real strength here is that he both manages to write archaically yet keeping the reader interested.
Thanks to this book I now intend to read Joyce's other great works " Finnegans Wake" and then, his classic, " Ulysses".

Work of art...once you appreciate it, 12 Feb 2006
I read this book for my A-level English Literature studies. I`ll be frank...at first, I found it to be terrible, not so much that it was boring, but that at the end of some of the stories, nothing seemed to have happened. But, after we studied it in bit more detail, I began to appreciate it...really began to appreciate it. It, to me, is a masterpiece. Joyce captures moments in life, "epiphanies", which are so subtly written, yet so potent, that you really do see "Dubliners" as a work of art. In this frame of mind, all the stories make sense, they all bear out some meaning. By living out the lives of those caught in the vast social spectrum of Dublin, Joyce reveals to us not only individuals, but also human lives, in their joy, pain, hope, love, loss, etc. Simply beautiful.

A rich book, 06 Apr 2005
This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider
James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich. This is a highly recommended read along with THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, FINNEGANS WAKE, THE UNION MOUJIK, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE

No big deal, but lots of pages., 19 Sep 2008
I tried and wanted to succeed, and initially enjoyed the book. But ultimately I come down on the side of the naysayers as I just found the book boring.

Ulysses continues the self-indulgent strain of the second half of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is much more irritating due to its excessive length.

For me this is the work of a lazy, sloppy writer, getting off on the easy hits of poetic language and never knuckling down to write a decent story. Yes it's inventive in its use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness, and Joyce's language is rich in its poetry, wit and wordplay (two stars for this). And yes, it provides a fascinating account of the minutiae of turn of the century Dublin, its people and habits.

But ...

I commits the cardinal sin of fiction - it's just plain boring.

Dickens, for instance, can be criticized for all sorts of things, but he knew how to spin a yarn, goddammit, always set out to entertain. Joyce's Ulysses is dull - the first 100 pages are interesting and inventive, but after that it's repetitive, banal and silly.

The chapter where Hamlet is discussed is truly awful - not good literature at all: I would rather read Stephen King. The last chapter is inventive (stream of consciousness, with no punctuation), but - again - utterly mundane and not at all entertaining.

The greatest book by the greatest author - period, 14 Jul 2008
Ulysses stomps over other works of literature like a brontosaurus. No book before or since has matched it.

In two minds..., 10 Feb 2008
I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, this is quite obviously a work of genius at some level, full of beautiful poetry, humour and truth about the human condition, all filled into a day in the life of the two (or three including the last chapter) main narrators.
On the other hand, there are so many allusions to things the average reader will be ignorant of as to render meaningless, which allied to the difficult narrative makes this a highly frustrating read.
In trying to understand parts of the novel that passed me by, I did some literary research and discovered the amazing depth this novel. Each chapter for example (apparantly!) has a theme based on colour and body part, and for this to be successfully woven into a story is a great achievement. The different styles and techniques used to tell the story is also highly impressive, while at the same time adding to the difficulty of the read.
The book is full of riddles and puzzles, some of which the answers to remain elusive to minds greater than mine. And there-in lies the problem; who has the time to spend reading and re-reading a book that is already close to a thousand pages long in order to fully understand it?

I have given this four stars rather than anything lower (and I very nearly did), to acknowledge that many of the problems of this book are down to the ignorance and lack of patience (or intelligence) of the reader, and indeed there are parts that are genuinely enjoyable through being funny, truthful or touched by genius.
However the nagging doubt remains that this book and the praise it has engendered is a partial case of the emperor's new clothes (and indeed the same could be said of modernism as a whole). At the very least, it seems that in being so tremendously ambitious, Joyce fell slightly short, as he himself is known to have admitted.

The subject of the book is humanity, 10 Oct 2007
The subject of Ulysses is simply humanity, the fact of being human. But then, Ulysses is full so of music, that it becomes a book which is almost possible to listen to. And Ulysses has so many poems embedded within the text that it should be called a poem, and not a novel. Finally, Ulysses has a lot of memory, but it is not the memory of the author, it is your memory. Every line, every page will make you remember episodes and moments, happy or not, of your life. At the end, Ulysses is a book about yourself as a human being.

Great concept, suffering read!, 13 Jul 2007
Fashion usually falls into two categories: one is conceptual - you will appreciate it as something to look at or even wear at a club - and the other is practical - you can actually wear them daily and the clothes suit your practical needs. Same with literature: one you will admire for the dare and conceptual quality, the other you will simply enjoy. The best literature, IMHO, is the one that manages to do both with panache. People like Flaubert or BEE at their best always have my undivided attention. Joyce I can respect, but don't ask me to read his stuff after Potrait of the Artist (a nice book, but not that amazing to begin with). I tried reading Ulysses and stopped halfway. This is prose-poetry sustained by a theoretical framework about what literature should really be like. It is meta-fiction. The last chapter is worth reading out loud just to try and understand what the modernists - Woolf, et al - had to rise up to in challenge. But after the first few chapters, this book becomes unbearable. Sure, it has wonderful paragraphs of sublime music - the sounds Joyce produces out of english syllables are miraculous - but I'd rather listen to music itself than read such a boring, boring book.

Not a page turner, 02 Jul 2008
Anyone thinking of buying this on the strength of "Dubliners" should be prepared to be disappointed. The book does display some of the author's undeniable talents: originality of thought, punchy writing style (especially in dialogue) and some elements of fabulous characterisation. The problem with is the book is that it has flashes of brilliance, and it sometimes takes along time to get to the great paragraphs, and it just doesn't "hang together" as a whole.

This book, for me, is outdated and not the best Joyce book available, and I'm sure I will incur the wrath of the purists for that statement. But, dear reader, consider this. You are considering buying this Joyce book, right? Hence you're reading a review on it. If it is part of a course for you, or you have an inflated opinion of your own intellectual faculties, buy it with my blessing and gibber on to your friends about how sophisticated you are to have read this (and then you can move onto Finnegan's Wake -- an easy read). But, if, like me, you are looking for a good novel with some value for a more casual reader, steer well clear, and by doing so distance yourself from the pretentious crowd.

P.S. Selah....the revolution against over generous reviewers gathers pace .. Dr. Bee Clarke.


portrait of an artist as a young man, 30 Sep 2007
I was forced to read this book, as part of a GCSE "A" level course, and 40 years later, I would still like to give it a totally minus review!All I can remember of this tome is that it was totally boring and I failed to see any point in reading it at all! This NOT my type of book, at all, in any way!!! To me, it seems totally pointless and I still cannot remember a single word of it, only the fact that I found it totally boring and unintelligible. I have been told to read "classics" and can, and have enjoyed may of them. I refute the claim of anybody that this book is a necessary part of english literature, which MUST be consumed. Well, sorry, this is NOT for me!!

Out of 'darkness' comes illumination, 25 Jun 2007
I also really struggled with this book. It's very static. The subject and content overall is very limited and thus the reader's imagination is not stretched.

Certainly no page-turner, this book took me weeks on end of bite-sized sittings. Strangely, nothing enthused me about the book - however, like other reviewers, I was attracted to the emotional grasp and wonderful choice/usage of language/words in this challenging piece of work. Very much a work of art, full of bland narrative hiding behind some beautiful strokes of genius.

The autobiographical work draws attention to a young man growing up in Ireland - highlighting his struggles with his peers, Catholicism and worldly desires that lie within. This is a truly reflective book of a great artist as a boy, adolescent and man. It is very personal and expressive. A clear metamorphosis can be seen from childhood through to adulthood - almost from a caterpillar developing into a butterfly with the freedom of flight.

The last pages of this book spoke to me in a very personal and upfront way - that within the 'darkness' of everday life, an individual should have a free, clear and expressive mind to make his or her ambitions in life and not be governed by others.

Hit-and-miss, not everyone's cup of camomile.


Flashes of wonderful genius, but no page-turner, 09 Aug 2006
Having read no Joyce before other than 'The Dubliners', which underwhelmed me slightly, I was not really expecting to enjoy 'Portrait...' madly. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and if it was a little hard going at times, the passages where Joyce really turns it on make 'Portrait' a decidedly worthwhile read.

The autobiographical novel consists of a number of disconnected episodes from the hero Stephen Dedalus' life, presented in chronological order. Though written in the third person, we are treated to an extremely personal account of Dedalus' late childhood, adolescence, and early manhood. He goes through several psychological phases as he comes to terms with the conflict between Catholicism and his own desires; as a young man myself (though not a Catholic), I certainly found a good deal to identify with.

Joyce's writing is strange. It is not obviously and consistently brilliant, as (for instance) Hemmingway or Fitzgerald. For pages, one feels a little bored as he describes grim Irish life with little attempt at entertainment or insight, but then suddenly he changes gear and nails you with something unsurpassably brilliant. As an example, I'll quote the last paragraph of chapter two - it's quite long, but should give you the idea.

"With a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted eyes. It was too much for him. He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her soflty parting lips. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour."

If you don't like this stuff, then I strongly advise you not to bother with 'Portrait'. Personally, I think it's about as good as anything I've read - I love the brain stuff and the last two phrases are very beautiful indeed.

In sum then, if you're after an unputdownable classic, look elsewhere: Joyce is no Dickens. If, however, you're willing to wade through some less-than-thrilling writing in order to be rewarded by moments of sparkling genius, then please give 'Portrait' a bash. It is unlikely to become a favourite, but the gems are sufficiently frequent and sufficiently brilliant to make it an excellent use of your time.



A personal, patchy work, 01 Apr 2006
Strange, clever book. Strong themes, realism, relevance: turmoil of young men seeking their own truth and expression of freedoms. Pride. Perspectives, influences. Intellectual discussions heavy. A personal book.

Some brilliant insights and expressive language.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Worthwhile read, but not particularly a page-turner, 30 May 2008
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Okay-ish, 24 May 2008
This collection of short stories is generally agreeable, though occasionally disturbing. Varied quality too, for instance, `The Boarding House' is excellent and the worst is probably `Grace' which is only average. The shorter of the short stories tend to be the better ones and end very well. Of course there is the long introduction (not Joyce) which does not necessarily enhance the appreciation. I hear that the early stuff is best so I will not be rushing to read `Ulysees'.


Moving, Funny, never Boring, 02 Apr 2006
A newcomer to James Joyce, I was looking forward to reading a work by an author associated so closely with the modernist " stream of consciousness" style of writing.
Joyce was simply a poet, and some sentences and passages in this book are better than Shakespeare etc. the 15 short stories are all set in Dublin, and all contain a range of different characters with different emotions, feelings, and indeed outlooks on life.
" An Encounter" is beautifully written from a child's point of view. Encountering someone who is essentially a paedophile will be a strange experience for a child, and, through Joyce, the boy simply tells the reader what he sees. Yet, the story is still disturbing and haunting.
My particular favourites are " Araby", focusing on a boy who is infatuated with a girl, it also contains the best line in the book in " but my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like strings running upon the wires"; " A little cloud", about a man who realises his failed journalistic career, and indeed the loss of affection for his wife; and " a painful case", again, like " A little cloud" centring on a man who has wasted his life, and, once he finds his true love, lets her go from him until it is too late when she dies.
The 15 stories are all poetically flawless Joyce's real strength here is that he both manages to write archaically yet keeping the reader interested.
Thanks to this book I now intend to read Joyce's other great works " Finnegans Wake" and then, his classic, " Ulysses".

Work of art...once you appreciate it, 12 Feb 2006
I read this book for my A-level English Literature studies. I`ll be frank...at first, I found it to be terrible, not so much that it was boring, but that at the end of some of the stories, nothing seemed to have happened. But, after we studied it in bit more detail, I began to appreciate it...really began to appreciate it. It, to me, is a masterpiece. Joyce captures moments in life, "epiphanies", which are so subtly written, yet so potent, that you really do see "Dubliners" as a work of art. In this frame of mind, all the stories make sense, they all bear out some meaning. By living out the lives of those caught in the vast social spectrum of Dublin, Joyce reveals to us not only individuals, but also human lives, in their joy, pain, hope, love, loss, etc. Simply beautiful.

A rich book, 06 Apr 2005
This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider
James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich. This is a highly recommended read along with THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, FINNEGANS WAKE, THE UNION MOUJIK, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE

No big deal, but lots of pages., 19 Sep 2008
I tried and wanted to succeed, and initially enjoyed the book. But ultimately I come down on the side of the naysayers as I just found the book boring.

Ulysses continues the self-indulgent strain of the second half of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is much more irritating due to its excessive length.

For me this is the work of a lazy, sloppy writer, getting off on the easy hits of poetic language and never knuckling down to write a decent story. Yes it's inventive in its use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness, and Joyce's language is rich in its poetry, wit and wordplay (two stars for this). And yes, it provides a fascinating account of the minutiae of turn of the century Dublin, its people and habits.

But ...

I commits the cardinal sin of fiction - it's just plain boring.

Dickens, for instance, can be criticized for all sorts of things, but he knew how to spin a yarn, goddammit, always set out to entertain. Joyce's Ulysses is dull - the first 100 pages are interesting and inventive, but after that it's repetitive, banal and silly.

The chapter where Hamlet is discussed is truly awful - not good literature at all: I would rather read Stephen King. The last chapter is inventive (stream of consciousness, with no punctuation), but - again - utterly mundane and not at all entertaining.

The greatest book by the greatest author - period, 14 Jul 2008
Ulysses stomps over other works of literature like a brontosaurus. No book before or since has matched it.

In two minds..., 10 Feb 2008
I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, this is quite obviously a work of genius at some level, full of beautiful poetry, humour and truth about the human condition, all filled into a day in the life of the two (or three including the last chapter) main narrators.
On the other hand, there are so many allusions to things the average reader will be ignorant of as to render meaningless, which allied to the difficult narrative makes this a highly frustrating read.
In trying to understand parts of the novel that passed me by, I did some literary research and discovered the amazing depth this novel. Each chapter for example (apparantly!) has a theme based on colour and body part, and for this to be successfully woven into a story is a great achievement. The different styles and techniques used to tell the story is also highly impressive, while at the same time adding to the difficulty of the read.
The book is full of riddles and puzzles, some of which the answers to remain elusive to minds greater than mine. And there-in lies the problem; who has the time to spend reading and re-reading a book that is already close to a thousand pages long in order to fully understand it?

I have given this four stars rather than anything lower (and I very nearly did), to acknowledge that many of the problems of this book are down to the ignorance and lack of patience (or intelligence) of the reader, and indeed there are parts that are genuinely enjoyable through being funny, truthful or touched by genius.
However the nagging doubt remains that this book and the praise it has engendered is a partial case of the emperor's new clothes (and indeed the same could be said of modernism as a whole). At the very least, it seems that in being so tremendously ambitious, Joyce fell slightly short, as he himself is known to have admitted.

The subject of the book is humanity, 10 Oct 2007
The subject of Ulysses is simply humanity, the fact of being human. But then, Ulysses is full so of music, that it becomes a book which is almost possible to listen to. And Ulysses has so many poems embedded within the text that it should be called a poem, and not a novel. Finally, Ulysses has a lot of memory, but it is not the memory of the author, it is your memory. Every line, every page will make you remember episodes and moments, happy or not, of your life. At the end, Ulysses is a book about yourself as a human being.

Great concept, suffering read!, 13 Jul 2007
Fashion usually falls into two categories: one is conceptual - you will appreciate it as something to look at or even wear at a club - and the other is practical - you can actually wear them daily and the clothes suit your practical needs. Same with literature: one you will admire for the dare and conceptual quality, the other you will simply enjoy. The best literature, IMHO, is the one that manages to do both with panache. People like Flaubert or BEE at their best always have my undivided attention. Joyce I can respect, but don't ask me to read his stuff after Potrait of the Artist (a nice book, but not that amazing to begin with). I tried reading Ulysses and stopped halfway. This is prose-poetry sustained by a theoretical framework about what literature should really be like. It is meta-fiction. The last chapter is worth reading out loud just to try and understand what the modernists - Woolf, et al - had to rise up to in challenge. But after the first few chapters, this book becomes unbearable. Sure, it has wonderful paragraphs of sublime music - the sounds Joyce produces out of english syllables are miraculous - but I'd rather listen to music itself than read such a boring, boring book.

Not a page turner, 02 Jul 2008
Anyone thinking of buying this on the strength of "Dubliners" should be prepared to be disappointed. The book does display some of the author's undeniable talents: originality of thought, punchy writing style (especially in dialogue) and some elements of fabulous characterisation. The problem with is the book is that it has flashes of brilliance, and it sometimes takes along time to get to the great paragraphs, and it just doesn't "hang together" as a whole.

This book, for me, is outdated and not the best Joyce book available, and I'm sure I will incur the wrath of the purists for that statement. But, dear reader, consider this. You are considering buying this Joyce book, right? Hence you're reading a review on it. If it is part of a course for you, or you have an inflated opinion of your own intellectual faculties, buy it with my blessing and gibber on to your friends about how sophisticated you are to have read this (and then you can move onto Finnegan's Wake -- an easy read). But, if, like me, you are looking for a good novel with some value for a more casual reader, steer well clear, and by doing so distance yourself from the pretentious crowd.

P.S. Selah....the revolution against over generous reviewers gathers pace .. Dr. Bee Clarke.


portrait of an artist as a young man, 30 Sep 2007
I was forced to read this book, as part of a GCSE "A" level course, and 40 years later, I would still like to give it a totally minus review!All I can remember of this tome is that it was totally boring and I failed to see any point in reading it at all! This NOT my type of book, at all, in any way!!! To me, it seems totally pointless and I still cannot remember a single word of it, only the fact that I found it totally boring and unintelligible. I have been told to read "classics" and can, and have enjoyed may of them. I refute the claim of anybody that this book is a necessary part of english literature, which MUST be consumed. Well, sorry, this is NOT for me!!

Out of 'darkness' comes illumination, 25 Jun 2007
I also really struggled with this book. It's very static. The subject and content overall is very limited and thus the reader's imagination is not stretched.

Certainly no page-turner, this book took me weeks on end of bite-sized sittings. Strangely, nothing enthused me about the book - however, like other reviewers, I was attracted to the emotional grasp and wonderful choice/usage of language/words in this challenging piece of work. Very much a work of art, full of bland narrative hiding behind some beautiful strokes of genius.

The autobiographical work draws attention to a young man growing up in Ireland - highlighting his struggles with his peers, Catholicism and worldly desires that lie within. This is a truly reflective book of a great artist as a boy, adolescent and man. It is very personal and expressive. A clear metamorphosis can be seen from childhood through to adulthood - almost from a caterpillar developing into a butterfly with the freedom of flight.

The last pages of this book spoke to me in a very personal and upfront way - that within the 'darkness' of everday life, an individual should have a free, clear and expressive mind to make his or her ambitions in life and not be governed by others.

Hit-and-miss, not everyone's cup of camomile.


Flashes of wonderful genius, but no page-turner, 09 Aug 2006
Having read no Joyce before other than 'The Dubliners', which underwhelmed me slightly, I was not really expecting to enjoy 'Portrait...' madly. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and if it was a little hard going at times, the passages where Joyce really turns it on make 'Portrait' a decidedly worthwhile read.

The autobiographical novel consists of a number of disconnected episodes from the hero Stephen Dedalus' life, presented in chronological order. Though written in the third person, we are treated to an extremely personal account of Dedalus' late childhood, adolescence, and early manhood. He goes through several psychological phases as he comes to terms with the conflict between Catholicism and his own desires; as a young man myself (though not a Catholic), I certainly found a good deal to identify with.

Joyce's writing is strange. It is not obviously and consistently brilliant, as (for instance) Hemmingway or Fitzgerald. For pages, one feels a little bored as he describes grim Irish life with little attempt at entertainment or insight, but then suddenly he changes gear and nails you with something unsurpassably brilliant. As an example, I'll quote the last paragraph of chapter two - it's quite long, but should give you the idea.

"With a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted eyes. It was too much for him. He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her soflty parting lips. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour."

If you don't like this stuff, then I strongly advise you not to bother with 'Portrait'. Personally, I think it's about as good as anything I've read - I love the brain stuff and the last two phrases are very beautiful indeed.

In sum then, if you're after an unputdownable classic, look elsewhere: Joyce is no Dickens. If, however, you're willing to wade through some less-than-thrilling writing in order to be rewarded by moments of sparkling genius, then please give 'Portrait' a bash. It is unlikely to become a favourite, but the gems are sufficiently frequent and sufficiently brilliant to make it an excellent use of your time.



A personal, patchy work, 01 Apr 2006
Strange, clever book. Strong themes, realism, relevance: turmoil of young men seeking their own truth and expression of freedoms. Pride. Perspectives, influences. Intellectual discussions heavy. A personal book.

Some brilliant insights and expressive language.

A pick you up for a wet summer, 21 Aug 2008
Re-read after 30 years. Still hilarious for easy summer reading. If you want a winter read try Diary of a Nobody. Beats tv!

Feelgood factor 20!, 09 Mar 2008
Taffybird and Stanton - I totally agree with your reviews. One of the funniest books ever written. I have read it countless times and the humour is still relevant today. Classic.

Very funny, at least in the beginning., 30 Apr 2007
This is another overrated "British Classic", but I have to say it was extremely funny in the beginning. The problem I had with it is that it got so boring towards the end that I was unable to finish the book. I think the author used up all the great gags early on and ran out of interesting and amusing things to say. A real shame.

The true British humour of today, yesterday and forevermore, 28 Apr 2007
As a Penguin Popular Classic many people may be put off buying this book with the assumtion that its humour would be lost on a modern audience.

However the fact that it has stood the test of time reflects not only its enduring relevance but its absolute perfection. Drawing from life observations on mainly male pride and ignorance this is a book for both sexes to enjoy (do not be put off by all the men involved, ladies!) and I actually laughed out loud on the train home on several occasions, prompting other passengers to ask me what I was reading so they could enjoy it too.

After you have been histerical all of the way through, enjoying also the real immersion in British upper-middle class thinking and experiences before the turn of the century (ie. late 19th), my real advice would be to lend it to all of your friends and then read it aloud to each other. You will not get past the third page for fear of choking on your own laughter (I tried this and suffered from a terrible stitch for several hours).

Very readable and genuinely funny, 09 Oct 2006
If you don't enjoy reading at all don't buy this book, if however, you do enjoy a well written and hilarious novel buy it!!! I can't praise this book highly enough, very well written, laugh out loud funny in many places, and also though provoking - especially the part about overloading your boat with trivial belongings.

Many a night have I been shouted at by my partner for waking her up to read a particularly good paragraph to her!

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Worthwhile read, but not particularly a page-turner, 30 May 2008
This is a collection of short stories, centering around characters in Dublin. Joyce's grasp of human psychology is profound, and he weaves this into narratives of domestic life and tensions. He manages to create a nostalgia within these stories that resonates with a wistful sadness, almost as if the personalities encapsulate his own regret or yearning for the past.

Although the ability of the book to really grab the reader is limited, Joyce's writing and the depth of character of his stories, really makes the effort worthwhile.

Okay-ish, 24 May 2008
This collection of short stories is generally agreeable, though occasionally disturbing. Varied quality too, for instance, `The Boarding House' is excellent and the worst is probably `Grace' which is only average. The shorter of the short stories tend to be the better ones and end very well. Of course there is the long introduction (not Joyce) which does not necessarily enhance the appreciation. I hear that the early stuff is best so I will not be rushing to read `Ulysees'.


Moving, Funny, never Boring, 02 Apr 2006
A newcomer to James Joyce, I was looking forward to reading a work by an author associated so closely with the modernist " stream of consciousness" style of writing.
Joyce was simply a poet, and some sentences and passages in this book are better than Shakespeare etc. the 15 short stories are all set in Dublin, and all contain a range of different characters with different emotions, feelings, and indeed outlooks on life.
" An Encounter" is beautifully written from a child's point of view. Encountering someone who is essentially a paedophile will be a strange experience for a child, and, through Joyce, the boy simply tells the reader what he sees. Yet, the story is still disturbing and haunting.
My particular favourites are " Araby", focusing on a boy who is infatuated with a girl, it also contains the best line in the book in " but my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like strings running upon the wires"; " A little cloud", about a man who realises his failed journalistic career, and indeed the loss of affection for his wife; and " a painful case", again, like " A little cloud" centring on a man who has wasted his life, and, once he finds his true love, lets her go from him until it is too late when she dies.
The 15 stories are all poetically flawless Joyce's real strength here is that he both manages to write archaically yet keeping the reader interested.
Thanks to this book I now intend to read Joyce's other great works " Finnegans Wake" and then, his classic, " Ulysses".

Work of art...once you appreciate it, 12 Feb 2006
I read this book for my A-level English Literature studies. I`ll be frank...at first, I found it to be terrible, not so much that it was boring, but that at the end of some of the stories, nothing seemed to have happened. But, after we studied it in bit more detail, I began to appreciate it...really began to appreciate it. It, to me, is a masterpiece. Joyce captures moments in life, "epiphanies", which are so subtly written, yet so potent, that you really do see "Dubliners" as a work of art. In this frame of mind, all the stories make sense, they all bear out some meaning. By living out the lives of those caught in the vast social spectrum of Dublin, Joyce reveals to us not only individuals, but also human lives, in their joy, pain, hope, love, loss, etc. Simply beautiful.

A rich book, 06 Apr 2005
This is the second James Joyce book I have read and it goes to reinforce the feeling I had after reading the first that that writer is a great storyteller. In fact, I consider
James Joyce's Dubliners as one of the best collection of short stories ever put together. The settings are amazing and the rich and lively characters all combine with the incredible plots to add credence to the stories. Not only are they true to life in fitting with the atmosphere that one finds in Dublin, the stories are also hilarious, subtle, and inspirational and gripping. The pace of the stories is fast and the voices are rich. This is a highly recommended read along with THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, FINNEGANS WAKE, THE UNION MOUJIK, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE

No big deal, but lots of pages., 19 Sep 2008
I tried and wanted to succeed, and initially enjoyed the book. But ultimately I come down on the side of the naysayers as I just found the book boring.

Ulysses continues the self-indulgent strain of the second half of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is much more irritating due to its excessive length.

For me this is the work of a lazy, sloppy writer, getting off on the easy hits of poetic language and never knuckling down to write a decent story. Yes it's inventive in its use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness, and Joyce's language is rich in its poetry, wit and wordplay (two stars for this). And yes, it provides a fascinating account of the minutiae of turn of the century Dublin, its people and habits.

But ...

I commits the cardinal sin of fiction - it's just plain boring.

Dickens, for instance, can be criticized for all sorts of things, but he knew how to spin a yarn, goddammit, always set out to entertain. Joyce's Ulysses is dull - the first 100 pages are interesting and inventive, but after that it's repetitive, banal and silly.

The chapter where Hamlet is discussed is truly awful - not good literature at all: I would rather read Stephen King. The last chapter is inventive (stream of consciousness, with no punctuation), but - again - utterly mundane and not at all entertaining.

The greatest book by the greatest author - period, 14 Jul 2008
Ulysses stomps over other works of literature like a brontosaurus. No book before or since has matched it.

In two minds..., 10 Feb 2008
I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, this is quite obviously a work of genius at some level, full of beautiful poetry, humour and truth about the human condition, all filled into a day in the life of the two (or three including the last chapter) main narrators.
On the other hand, there are so many allusions to things the average reader will be ignorant of as to render meaningless, which allied to the difficult narrative makes this a highly frustrating read.
In trying to understand parts of the novel that passed me by, I did some literary research and discovered the amazing depth this novel. Each chapter for example (apparantly!) has a theme based on colour and body part, and for this to be successfully woven into a story is a great achievement. The different styles and techniques used to tell the story is also highly impressive, while at the same time adding to the difficulty of the read.
The book is full of riddles and puzzles, some of which the answers to remain elusive to minds greater than mine. And there-in lies the problem; who has the time to spend reading and re-reading a book that is already close to a thousand pages long in order to fully understand it?

I have given this four stars rather than anything lower (and I very nearly did), to acknowledge that many of the problems of this book are down to the ignorance and lack of patience (or intelligence) of the reader, and indeed there are parts that are genuinely enjoyable through being funny, truthful or touched by genius.
However the nagging doubt remains that this book and the praise it has engendered is a partial case of the emperor's new clothes (and indeed the same could be said of modernism as a whole). At the very least, it seems that in being s