Reading Mindfully: James Joyce’s “Eveline”

Reading Mindfully: James Joyce’s “Eveline”

Each month, we offer you a chance to read mindfully, to use literature to think about your perceptions and reactions to the world in which we live and work. Through these short texts and accompanying questions, we hope to give you a small taste of Books@Work. Please grab a friend or colleague to read, share and discuss – and send us your thoughts.

James Joyce is one of the most celebrated and influential writers of the 20th century. Born in 1882 in Dublin, his novels are known for their stream-of-consciousness prose and experimental style. His early short story volume Dubliners is a more straightforward read. Published in 1914, the powerful collection depicts Irish middle-class life through the eyes of Dublin’s residents, including young Eveline Hill. The loss and devastation of the Irish famine loom large throughout the collection.

As you read “Eveline,” consider these questions:

  • How does our definition of home evolve throughout our lives?
  • What spurs us to be willing to move outside our comfort zones?
  • Do you think Eveline made the right choice?

Eveline

by James Joyce

SHE sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odor of dusty cretonne. She was tired.

Eduardo Arroyo's Portrait de James Joyce

Eduardo Arroyo, Portrait de James Joyce, 1992 via WikiArt.org

Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cinder path before the new red houses. One time there used to be a field there in which they used to play every evening with other people’s children. Then a man from Belfast bought the field and built houses in it — not like their little brown houses but bright brick houses with shining roofs.

Continue reading “Eveline” or listen to Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry read the story.   

Image: Claude Monet, Ships in Harbor, 1873, [Public Domain] via Wikiart.org

Learn More About Our Programs or Read More on The Notebook


Share:
Capria Jaussen

Capria Jaussen

capriajaussen@thatcanbeme.org

Capria Jaussen is the Director of Operations of Books@Work.

Maredith Sheridan

Maredith Sheridan

Maredith Sheridan is a Development Communications Associate at the Cleveland Orchestra and a part-time member of the Books@Work team. She continues to write posts for our blog.