Dubliners written by James Joyce performed by Gerald McSorley on CD (Abridged)

In his first published work in prose, James Joyce paints vivid portraits of the people of Dublin, his city of birth, in a collection of stories whose larger purpose, he said, was to depict a "moral history of Ireland".

From the first story, in which a young boy encounters death, to the haunting final story involving the middle-aged Gabriel, the book gives an unflinching and realistic portrayal of "dear, dirty Dublin" in the early 20th-century.

This brilliant study is by turns bawdy and witty, but always darkened by a paralysis of spirit and emotions.