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 over the River Liffey. You’ll never forget this city or its occupants.

The stories:

• 'The Sisters'
• 'An Encounter'
• 'Araby'
• 'Eveline'
• 'After the Race'
• 'Two Gallants'
• 'The Boarding House'
• 'A Little Cloud'
• 'Counterparts'
• 'Clay'
• 'A Painful Case'
• 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room'
• 'A Mother'
• 'Grace'
• 'The Dead'