What do you choose from a collection where every story is perfect? Well, how about An Encounter, a story of childhood misadventure? You could construct a map of the city from the stories in Dubliners, and indeed in some editions ‘An Encounter’ comes with a map tracing the journey the boys take over the river Liffey and along the Wharf Road to see the Pigeon House (never explained in the story, it’s a power station). A wonderful evocation of a childhood full of weekly comics and cowboys and Indians, there is a growing sense of menace as the boys make their journey. Dubliners is full of characters who seek to escape the oppression of the city, and the boys get further than most, though what they encounter in the end is a curdled vision of adulthood, rather than the world beyond the city.
First published in Dubliners, Grant Richards Ltd., 1914: there are many editions now available, including Penguin Modern Classics, 2000, it can be read online here
A Personal Anthology 