The stories in

are generally considered to have charm, delicacy, and some mystery and symbolical tension. Their style is controlled, deliberately simple, unpolished, not lacking in skill, yet in places the stories betray the ineptitude of the inexperienced, young author.  Joyce was only twenty-two, and he had written only a handful of sentimental poems, when AE (George Russell) asked him if he wanted to contribute some stories to the

. AE sent him an example from the paper, a story called “The Old Watchman” by Berkeley Campbell. In response, Joyce wrote “The Sisters”, published on 13 August 1904, a rough and rather puzzling sketch of a young boy and a priest who dies, with very little plot and no real ending. It followed rather closely the basic setting…

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Citation: Van Mierlo, Wim. "Dubliners". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5482, accessed 26 December 2024.]