Marvellous!

Marvelous in every way. JIm Norton is a wonder, reading what is probably the finest collection of stories ever written.

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Jim Norton: A Great Reader Of James Joyce

No reader of James Joyce rivals the integrity and intelligence of Jim Norton. His performances make you wonder why anyone else should tackle a new recording. The Dubliners set offers the Norton trademark of coolness and precision of narrative, and a range of convincing voices in dialogue. I've been reading James Joyce off the page for 45 years, but Norton's readings always bring out new nuances and tones.

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5 people found this helpful

The Dubliners

A series of short stories chronicling the everyday lives of various people in Dublin at the turn of the last century, culminating in the wonderful novella at the end.
Joyce’s works aren’t for everyone, I’ve heard him called a celebrator of the mundane, but some of these stories tick the boxes for me. Best of the bunch are ‘Two gallants’, ‘A little cloud’, (with the wonderfully obnoxious Ignatius Gallagher) ‘counterparts’ & the sad ‘a painful case’
The musical interludes reflect the times brilliantly & Jim Norton’s narration is sublime.

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Dublin city in the rare ould times

I bought my first copy of Dubliners at Byrne?s Bookstore in O?Connell Street Dungarvan thirty years ago read and re-read the stories between serving on the counter at the Village Shop in Stradbally Co. Waterford where I was working and sitting down at The Cove and thought it was the best thing I?d ever read. I then moved on to Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses though my early years at college and came to regard the works of Joyce as being central to my enjoyment of literature.
Picking up the book again, with a world of experience and perhaps a totally different perspective - this is still the best thing I?ve ever read.
The epiphanies work as they all did previously. The distance of time and experience meant a more objective and objectified reading on this occasion and yet I was immediately touched by the beauty of the writing, the breadth of Joyce?s emotional scope, his empathy will all types, ages and descriptions of characters and the depth of the noises, colours, smells and voices that drift up from the page.
The modern perspective that we can now bring to The Sisters belie the fact that this story is over a hundred years old and Church and laity now have a completely different relationship and perspective one to the other.
An Encounter is genuinely chilling, based entirely on what is not said as much as what is laid out in front of us.....and on and on it goes....A Mother rings as to in the 2010 ?Live and Unsigned? tour as it does on the Grafton Street stage....and Gabriel Conroy is everyman in relation to The Dead.
If you?ve read this before then you?ll enjoy it doubly on re-reading it - if you?ve never read Dubliners before then this is the treat of a lifetime.

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2 people found this helpful

Joyce as he should be.

This is a wonderful rendering of an all time classic. Norton is superb at capturing all the nuances of Irish accents, from working class Dublin to rural Galway, from 'the quality' to the working man and woman. More importantly, he invests the characters with a deep humanity that speaks to the soul. A beautiful piece of work.

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Superb rendering of superb writing

What did you like most about Dubliners (Naxos Edition)?

Joyce doen't need me to spray the greatness of his writing still further. It goes without saying. But to make him as easily available as Jim Norton does takes a special talent. As with his outstanding reading, performing really, of Ulysses, he is utterly, convincingly in character in these stories. His feeling for sound, poetic motion and the nuances of personality is faultless.

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5 people found this helpful

One of the best audiobooks in my collection

Absolutely adore the stories. Beautifully narrated by Jim Norton who is simply amazing and does a stellar job with the accents and in conveying the humour present in the dialogue of some of the characters. Will listen again and again. The musical excerpts in between each story are truly enchanting. Plunges you straight into Joyce's Ireland. What a masterpiece. I love this audiobook so much I even purchased the CDs to add to my already extensive collection. Dubliners is a great way to get acquainted with James Joyce, and can be used, I think, as a stepping stone for the author's other works such as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the daunting Ulysses. Highly recommended! If you are able to find a good used copy of the out-of-print Illustrated Edition with Annotations by John Wyse Jackson, go ahead and buy. You will not regret it. It contains so much information and the illustrations will enhance your comprehension of what is surely one of the best collection of short stories of the 20th century. I also used the Oxford World's Classics edition and York Notes to get the most out of my reading. It is hard to believe that Joyce had difficulty having his work published,

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1 person found this helpful

Dubliners (Unabridged)

Fantastic reading by Jim Norton. Norton is able to evoke a sense of time and place in his reading by giving each of the characters an Irish (or an English accent where appropriate) accent. The reading pace is steady and characters are brought to life in Norton's rendering of the Dubliners in this audio book.

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12 people found this helpful

An unexpected delight

Jim Norton's narration is superb. Brought the stories to life in a way I hadn't expected.

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2 people found this helpful

Dubliners

Unfortunately and sadly James Joyce was not for me I found it too deep and depressing

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