Araby by James Joyce4 starsThis short story follows a young Irish boy going through his first infatuation. This is a beautiful written story that spoke to me deeply. I personally took away that life will cause you to face hardships, but your hardships mean nothing because in the big World you are just a nameless boy or girl in the vastness of the world. I really enjoyed this one. I'm definitely going to be looking into other works by Joyce, particularly his short stories.

This is my favourite short story from Joyce’s excellent collection Dubliners because it shows the development of Western to Eastern perceptions in only just a few decades. And, not only that, the narrator grows from his initial state of ignorance and develops as a person, both intellectually and emotionally in just a few pages. It’s a great piece of writing. Previously, all we have had with Victorian literature is a racist representation of the Orient. They saw it as underdeveloped compared to t...

read this for uni, no never again. that is all

The most prevalent irony in this short story is the contrast between the dreamlike type of love he feels for the young woman, and the reality of his unrealistically high expectations. The metaphor for this irony is the bazaar Araby, after which the text is appropriately named. The prospect of attending Araby became a feverish obsession for the young narrator the minute the object of his affection expressed interest in the bazaar. When she told him she could not go, he made it his mission to atte...

Even though this beautifully worded story ends on a sad note, its life still goes on. After all there is nothing tragic happened to whatever he has with the girl. She is still there, he will again see her. It is just an unlucky moment that makes him feel unwanted at the bazaar, too soon he gives up and wallows in resentment. But we know him better, we have seen very definitive streaks of a romancer in him– “My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my hear...

A very strange story in my opinion. Pretty dark in some parts, there are some interesting and redeeming parts but all and all it was just okay.UPDATE:I had to read this a second time, good thing it was short but I wanted to see if the feeling it gave me was from the book or was just the feeling I had at the time. And it was definitely from the book. Though it was an uneasy feeling; any story that can evoke such feeling deserves another star than the 3 I gave it just for the story.

The short story with a pleasuring yourself scene which doesn't seem like a pleasuring oneself scene because it's so poetic.

. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. Adoration and foolishness mixed together in a short story. He is expecting too much from a girl who is a figment of his imagination. I believe that expectation is the root of all heartaches and this further cemented my belief. I can see why Araby is adored by the readers. The frustration of first love and adoration. The pain of lost love that is never there.

You know, I think we've all had our own araby. Your career can be your araby, or your marriage, or your first love etc. What amazes me is how universal the theme of araby is. The juxtaposition between dreams vs reality is certainly spot-on and it acknowledges the reality that our own araby may not be as grand or as beautiful as how we expect it to be when we get there.If you analyze the story superficially, you may find it cliche, but if you look at the sub-text or the hidden meaning behind the

Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; andmy eyes burned with anguish and anger.

But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires. I have never once thought that I would love a text, given to me in English lessons. But this, this is something special.As short as it is, Joyce skilfully paints an ethereal image which is so simple yet, deep, down to its core. The delicacy of his words in every sentence to the eccentricity and depth of each character, succinctly manifests a thought provoking message by the end.One of, if not the, m

https://americanliterature.com/author..."North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.""Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes...

"I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood." Beautifully written short. Contrasts the dreams and aspirations of young love with the coldness of seemingly hopeless realities. Definitely one to be mulled over though to fully appreciate all that is both written and not written. three starsREAD IT HEREOkay Mr Joyce. I'm game if you are. Time to start reading more of your shorter works!

I came upon this in a textbook called The Story and Its Writer aka Mwana's way to complete her read-200-books challenge. I have more to say about Joyce than I do about this short story- which is part of the collection Dubliners. I will say it's so goddamn magical, my mind swooned. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns.The narrator is infatuated with a neighbour and he has the reaction I ordinarily have...

Mm, well that was incredibly boring. I truly felt nothing while reading this short story. I get the point, but I also feel like it could have been much better delivered. The writing style and descriptions are nice enough, but it takes more than a nice setting and words for me to enjoy a short story.

I had to read this for uni and really disliked it...I thought I would end up liking it more after discussing it in class but that didn’t happen lmao

I see many Literary Life Podcast (https://www.theliterary.life) did not like this story. Hang in there. The episode drops August 16, 2019 and I think you may, at the very least, find the story is deeper than it seems.

“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”

A short story from the collection "Dubliners." I've been rereading some of these stories as I work my way through Edna O'Brien's James Joyce.In "Araby" a boy is obsessed with an older girl, and promises to bring her something from the bazaar. That's about it. For atmosphere, the former tenant of the house on North Richmond Street was a priest who had died in the back drawing-room. North Richmond Street was a blind street, which seems to mean a dead end. However, for such a blind street there its...

The unnamed protagonist in "Araby" is a boy who is just starting to come into his sexual identity. Through his first-person narration, we are immersed at the start of the story in the drab life that people live on North Richmond Street, which seems to be illuminated only by the verve and imagination of the children who, despite the growing darkness that comes during the winter months, insist on playing "until [their:] bodies glowed." Even though the conditions of this neighbourhood leave much to...