Short Story Criticism | Araby, James Joyce - Bernard Benstock (essay date 1967)

Bernard Benstock (essay date 1967)

SOURCE: “Arabesques: Third Position of Concord,” in James Joyce Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 1, Fall, 1967, pp. 30–9.

[In the following essay, Benstock supports Professor Stone's thesis in the essay reprinted above, and agrees that “Araby” serves “as a vital introduction of many of the motifs of the later works of James Joyce.”]

“You must say ‘paragon’: a paramour is,
God bless us, a thing of naught.”

—A Midsummer-Night's Dream

“I’m the Sheik of Araby,
Your love belongs to me;
At night when you’re asleep,
Into your tent I’ll creep.”

—“The Sheik of Araby”

“… (if you can spot fifty I spy
four more) …”

—Finnegans Wake

In the Fall ’65 issue of the Antioch Review Harry Stone marched through James Joyce's “Araby” in hobnailed boots, kicking up many muddy chunks. In retaliation Robert P. ApRoberts...

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