Counterparts
James Joyce
Original text: Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2814 UTF-8 snapshot; complete story “Counterparts”
Choose a view. Your choice stays with you as you move through the work.
Find a section
Choose a paragraph to open its bounded reader passage.
Current position: Section 1 of 80
The bell rang furiously and, when Miss Parker went to the tube, a furious voice called out in…
“Send Farrington here!”
Miss Parker returned to her machine, saying to a man who was writing at a desk:
“Mr Alleyne wants you upstairs.”
The man muttered “_Blast_ him!” under his breath and pushed back his chair to stand up. When he…
He went heavily upstairs until he came to the second landing, where a door bore a brass plate…
“Come in!”
The man entered Mr Alleyne’s room. Simultaneously Mr Alleyne, a little man wearing gold-rimmed glasses on a clean-shaven…
“Farrington? What is the meaning of this? Why have I always to complain of you? May I ask…
“But Mr Shelley said, sir——”
“_Mr Shelley said, sir...._ Kindly attend to what I say and not to what _Mr Shelley says, sir_.…
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you hear me now?... Ay and another little matter! I might as well be talking to the…
“Yes, sir.”
Mr Alleyne bent his head again upon his pile of papers. The man stared fixedly at the polished…
“Eh? Are you going to stand there all day? Upon my word, Farrington, you take things easy!”
“I was waiting to see....”
“Very good, you needn’t wait to see. Go downstairs and do your work.”
The man walked heavily towards the door and, as he went out of the room, he heard Mr…
He returned to his desk in the lower office and counted the sheets which remained to be copied.…
“It’s all right, Mr Shelley,” said the man, pointing with his finger to indicate the objective of his…
The chief clerk glanced at the hat-rack but, seeing the row complete, offered no remark. As soon as…
“Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.”
The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked…
Darkness, accompanied by a thick fog, was gaining upon the dusk of February and the lamps in Eustace…
“Mr Alleyne has been calling for you,” said the chief clerk severely. “Where were you?”
The man glanced at the two clients who were standing at the counter as if to intimate that…
“I know that game,” he said. “Five times in one day is a little bit.... Well, you better…
This address in the presence of the public, his run upstairs and the porter he had gulped down…
The moist pungent perfume lay all the way up to Mr Alleyne’s room. Miss Delacour was a middle-aged…
The man returned to the lower office and sat down again at his desk. He stared intently at…
He felt strong enough to clear out the whole office singlehanded. His body ached to do something, to…
His imagination had so abstracted him that his name was called twice before he answered. Mr Alleyne and…
“I know nothing about any other two letters,” he said stupidly.
“_You—know—nothing_. Of course you know nothing,” said Mr Alleyne. “Tell me,” he added, glancing first for approval to…
The man glanced from the lady’s face to the little egg-shaped head and back again; and, almost before…
“I don’t think, sir,” he said, “that that’s a fair question to put to me.”
There was a pause in the very breathing of the clerks. Everyone was astounded (the author of the…
“You impertinent ruffian! You impertinent ruffian! I’ll make short work of you! Wait till you see! You’ll apologise…
He stood in a doorway opposite the office watching to see if the cashier would come out alone.…
He felt his great body again aching for the comfort of the public-house. The fog had begun to…
He went through the narrow alley of Temple Bar quickly, muttering to himself that they could all go…
“So, I just looked at him—coolly, you know, and looked at her. Then I looked back at him…
Nosey Flynn was sitting up in his usual corner of Davy Byrne’s and, when he heard the story,…
Just as they were naming their poisons who should come in but Higgins! Of course he had to…
When that round was over there was a pause. O’Halloran had money but neither of the other two…
When the Scotch House closed they went round to Mulligan’s. They went into the parlour at the back…
When Paddy Leonard called him he found that they were talking about feats of strength. Weathers was showing…
The trial began. After about thirty seconds Weathers brought his opponent’s hand slowly down on to the table.…
“You’re not to put the weight of your body behind it. Play fair,” he said.
“Who’s not playing fair?” said the other.
“Come on again. The two best out of three.”
The trial began again. The veins stood out on Farrington’s forehead, and the pallor of Weathers’ complexion changed…
“Ah! that’s the knack!”
“What the hell do you know about it?” said Farrington fiercely, turning on the man. “What do you…
“Sh, sh!” said O’Halloran, observing the violent expression of Farrington’s face. “Pony up, boys. We’ll have just one…
A very sullen-faced man stood at the corner of O’Connell Bridge waiting for the little Sandymount tram to…
His tram let him down at Shelbourne Road and he steered his great body along in the shadow…
“Ada! Ada!”
His wife was a little sharp-faced woman who bullied her husband when he was sober and was bullied…
“Who is that?” said the man, peering through the darkness.
“Me, pa.”
“Who are you? Charlie?”
“No, pa. Tom.”
“Where’s your mother?”
“She’s out at the chapel.”
“That’s right.... Did she think of leaving any dinner for me?”
“Yes, pa. I——”
“Light the lamp. What do you mean by having the place in darkness? Are the other children in…
The man sat down heavily on one of the chairs while the little boy lit the lamp. He…
“What’s for my dinner?”
“I’m going ... to cook it, pa,” said the little boy.
The man jumped up furiously and pointed to the fire.
“On that fire! You let the fire out! By God, I’ll teach you to do that again!”
He took a step to the door and seized the walking-stick which was standing behind it.
“I’ll teach you to let the fire out!” he said, rolling up his sleeve in order to give…
The little boy cried _“O, pa!”_ and ran whimpering round the table, but the man followed him and…
“Now, you’ll let the fire out the next time!” said the man striking at him vigorously with the…
The boy uttered a squeal of pain as the stick cut his thigh. He clasped his hands together…
“O, pa!” he cried. “Don’t beat me, pa! And I’ll ... I’ll say a _Hail Mary_ for you....…