And the I'm going to be. Welcome to this newsccast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep.

On Snuscast, we read excerpts from Public Domain Works and occasionally original stories.

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Soundproofing. Tonight, we'll be reading from the collection Dubliners written by James Joyce in 1914.

The story is titled Araby.

The stories in Dubliners form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.

The stories were written when Irish nationalism was of the

stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak

and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging.

At a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas

and influences. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes.

Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now, take a few deep breaths. Aroby. North Richmond Street, being blind was a quiet street, except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' school set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbors in a square

ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another

with brown imperturbable faces. The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back

drawing room. Air, musty from having been long and closed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind

the kitchen was littered with old useless papers.

Among these I found a few paper-covered books,

the pages of which were curled and damp, the Abbott by Walter Scott, the devout communicant and the

memoirs of Vitic. I like to the last best because its leaves were yellow.

The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple tree

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