LETTURE IN LINGUA

A middle-aged woman running away from her dull reality by pretending to be someone else, a man whose married life has taken a path that he can no longer ignore, and two little girls pushed in a corner by a self-righteous neighbourhood; with these stories Mrs Mansfield unfolds the human mind and gives us an understanding of the twisted ways it reaches out for meaning and fulfillment; she does so through a peculiar style of writing which by skillfully interweaving narrator’s understatements and character’s epiphanies deeply involves the reader and calls on them to reflect on the questions at stake.

The universality of the topics and issues tackled here enables Mrs Manfield’s work to talk to the generations of today, thus enhancing its purpose and value.

Dubliners was James Joyce’s first endeavour to put his native city and its inhabitants onto the literary map of the world. A century after its first publication, the stories still conjure up the Dublin of Joyce’s youth, recounting critical moments in the lives of his fellow citizens in an Ireland held captive by British Rule and Irish Catholicism.

Narrated in a deceptively simple style, each story can be read independently or as part of an organic whole, offering the reader an insight into the complexity and originality of Joyce’s artistic vision. The result is a unique reading experience, which serves as an excellent introduction to the artist who would go on to astound the world with the great epic novels Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.