Dubliners

Form-defining short stories. First published in 1914, James Joyce defined what the short story could be with his collection Dubliners. A mixture of prose and poetry, each story can be listened to independently or as a collection. From childhood to maturity, we see what life - and ultimately death - can be, via an extraordinary cast of characters, all of whom experience an epiphany. There’s Father Flynn, the priest; Evelyn, the shop girl who dreams of escape; Mrs Mooney, the butcher’s daughter, who runs a boarding house. Joyce described the stories as ‘a moral history of my country’. Written by a young Joyce, with the devastating potato famine still in living memory, he wanted to explore the reasons why a city and its occupants could be so paralysed. For the modern listener, the stories also provide a fascinating snapshot of early 20th-century life - from clay pipes to sixpences, petticoats to ginger beer. In your mind’s eye, walk round Stephen’s Green, wander down Grafton Street and ov