Dubliners [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

James Joyce (Author), Gerard McSorley (Reader)

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Product Details

Audio CD
Publisher: Penguin-HighBridge; Unabridged selections; 2.5 hours on 2 CDs edition (Dec 16 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565119401
ISBN-13: 978-1565119406
Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 12 x 2.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 222 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,444,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Audiobooks > Audio CDs > Authors, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, James

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Frank and Malachy McCourt and 13 Irish actors bring Joyce's short stories to life in this well-produced audiobook. None of the readers employ a thick accent in the narrative portions, but for dialogue they let their imitative talents shine and their Irish lilts bloom. Brendan Coyle and Charles Keating, reading "A Little Cloud" and "Grace" respectively, give such wonderful expression to the idiosyncrasies of every individual voice that the listener is never confused even when numerous men are talking. Joyce wrote only sparingly in actual dialect, but most of the readers interpret his intentions freely and successfully. Fionnula Flanagan is perfect reading "A Mother," her voice shifting easily between prim and proper tones and fiery indignation punctuated with little sighs. It helps that Joyce's writing is so masterful that when Flanagan and the two other actresses read the three stories that revolve around women, their words sound utterly natural. Not all the performances are on the same level—Stephen Rea's cold, somber voice is apt for the meditative beginning and ending sections of the collection's most famous story, "The Dead," but too flat for the central description of a lively party. This audiobook creates the atmosphere of a fireside storytelling session that will hold any listener in rapt attention. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Review

Starred Review. Frank and Malachy McCourt and 13 Irish actors bring Joyce's short stories to life in this well-produced audiobook. None of the readers employ a thick accent in the narrative portions, but for dialogue they let their imitative talents shine and their Irish lilts bloom. Brendan Coyle and Charles Keating, reading "A Little Cloud" and "Grace" respectively, give such wonderful expression to the idiosyncrasies of every individual voice that the listener is never confused even when numerous men are talking. Joyce wrote only sparingly in actual dialect, but most of the readers interpret his intentions freely and successfully. Fionnula Flanagan is perfect reading "A Mother," her voice shifting easily between prim and proper tones and fiery indignation punctuated with little sighs. It helps that Joyce's writing is so masterful that when Flanagan and the two other actresses read the three stories that revolve around women, their words sound utterly natural. Not all the performances are on the same level—Stephen Rea's cold, somber voice is apt for the meditative beginning and ending sections of the collection's most famous story, "The Dead," but too flat for the central description of a lively party. This audiobook creates the atmosphere of a fireside storytelling session that will hold any listener in rapt attention. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Publishers Weekly )

. . . the stories have a certain beauty, especially in a new recording from Caedmon Audio. Dubliners will endure not only because it's Joyce, but also because of the people performing it. The list of narrators reads like an Irish who's-who . . . It's worth every minute. (Philadelphia Inquirer )

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Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dublin digitally discerned and declaimed, Oct 15 2006

By John L Murphy "Fionnch�" - Published on Amazon.com

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This review is from: Dubliners Cd Unabridged (Audio CD)

Handsomely produced, elegantly assembled, and consistently engrossing: these actors read the stories with appropriate sensitivity, wit, pathos, and distance. The detachment of Joyce in his "voice" on the page is re-created well. When I have taught students "Araby" or "The Boarding House," the chance to hear the language repeated as its author would have meant it to be rendered makes these stories come alive for a classroom six thousand miles and a century away from early 20c Dublin.

Although all of the stories succeed, those in the center of the book emerged when conveyed aloud most enlighteningly. Clay, A Mother, A Painful Case, and most of all Two Gallants, After the Race, and Counterparts all hit my ear with more force than they had when I had only read them. These stories are often overlooked compared to the others, but the skill that the actors brought to these more prosaic, less lively, and more nuanced examples of Joyce's careful craft deserve special acclaim. The packaging keeps the CDs securely in place, is itself compact and well-designed, fitting its outwardly austere & Edwardian yet subtly decorated and inviting contents.

Students, the curious newcomer, the experienced teacher, and those who read the book out of delight and not duty: all will benefit from the music on the page that by a technology Joyce himself spoke into at its early gramaphone stages is now digitally preserved so that those of us all over the world and a vastly changed world later can be entertained and instructed. I think JJ might have been pleased at this version of his pioneering, eloquent, yet accessible and moving, accounts of his imagined neighbors and municipal counterparts.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyce Is Meant to Be Read Aloud, Oct 4 2007

By John F. Rooney - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Dubliners Cd Unabridged (Audio CD)

James Joyce was absorbed by music, people, languages, acting and actors, and though an exile from his native country and city, his literary consciousness was forever embedded in Dublin. He had an unerring ear for Dublin dialogue.
At night I turn out the lights and listen to these CD's, to the cadences of the people talking, and to me these Dubliners endlessly gossiping are in the room with me. Joyce's narrative adroitness, his choice of words, his lyrical descriptions, and above all, his sense of place are brilliant facets of a genius.
Stephen Rea's sensitive reading of "The Dead" is worth the price of this set of fifteen stories read by fifteen different mostly Irish personalities. The characters in the stories live and breathe, become real. Joyce was meant to be read aloud. It's good talk, conversations that you become a part of.
In these stories Joyce is very accessible. In Finnegan's Wake he became Jackson Pollock--obscure and difficult. In "The Dead" you can feel, touch, hear, and taste the snow that is falling outside the house while inside two old sisters are giving their annual bright and cheery party. It's a story of tenderness, love, regrets, and lost lovers, but it is mainly full of life, good times, fellowship, and above all humanity.

5.0 out of 5 stars Who's Afraid of James Joyce?, Mar 1 2011

By Cariola "malfi" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Dubliners Cd Unabridged (Audio CD)

If you've avoided James Joyce after hearing horror stories about the difficulty of reading 'Ulysses' and 'Finnegan's Wake,' put them aside and grab onto this extraordinary collection of Joyce's early short stories. These fifteen stories, each beautifully read by an Irish actor or writer, are funny and poignant and full of the unique atmosphere of Dublin. The perfect introduction to Joyce. Don't miss this one!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars