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# An Encounter
- URL: https://www.rebindclassics.com/dubliners-an-encounter/
- Published: 2026-01-02T00:02:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:28:25.000Z
- Description: Banville follows two truant boys across Dublin to a meeting with a sinister stranger in which nothing happens and everything does.
- Author: Andrew Wessels
- Tags: John Banville on James Joyce's Dubliners, #video

John Banville talks you through "An Encounter," one of the three childhood stories in James Joyce's *Dubliners*. Three schoolboys plan to mitch, Dublin for playing truant; one doesn't show, which leaves the other two with one shilling and sixpence instead of one shilling. They walk the North Strand Road, cross the ferry (Banville films beside it) and aim for the Pigeon House without ever arriving. He knows the day from his own truancies: half an hour in, the sweets and sandwiches are gone and there's nothing left to do.

Then the stranger, who talks of sweethearts before it becomes clear it isn't girls he's interested in, and then of whipping. Banville's point is how delicately Joyce does it. Nothing is named; the boys know they should leave and, like all children held by odd adults, they stay. Nothing happens, as so often in Joyce and in Chekhov, and yet everything happens. They'll never forget it.

## Transcript

"An Encounter" is one of the three stories at the beginning of the collection, which devoted to or illustrate youth. They're all narrated in the first person, but it's ironic that they're narrated by young boys who don't really know what's going on for the most part.

In "An Encounter," three schoolboys decide to mitch for the day, which means play truant for the day, gonna go off for a day of adventure. And of course, all of us who remember days of truancy, there's nothing more boring. 'Cause after the first half hour, you've eaten the sweets and you've eaten your sandwiches, and there's nothing else to do with the rest of the day. So one of the boys doesn't turn up, which pleases the other two. 'Cause they have more money. They have one shilling and sixpence instead of one shilling.

As in almost all these stories, they take an immense walk. They traverse miles and miles. We don't know where they live, but they go from the city. They go along the North Strand Road, a very long road, and they cross on the ferry, which is just here, and they're aiming for the Pigeon House. Pigeon House is a power station. Now, I think it was a customs house or something in those days. They never get there. They dawdle along and they encounter this strange, sinister man. And he talks to them at first about their sweethearts. And every boy has lots of sweethearts, but we rapidly realize that it's not female sweethearts he's interested in at all. So it's very sinister and very, it's not ugly, but the boys, the two boys are fascinated by this character. And they're also frightened by him. But in the way that, if we all look back to our youth, we're held by strange adult figures who wander into our lives. We know we should get away from them. We know we should just stop this and go, but they don't, they stay.

And he begins to talk about, essentially I say the masochist, about whipping boys and so on. And again, it's so delicately done. Well, there's never mention, this is about sadists, and it's all just boys, two boys encountering this fellow. But you know that they will never, ever forget this encounter. Nothing happens, you know, as so often in Joyce, as so often in Chekhov. Nothing happens. And yet everything happens. Life happens. One of those formative experiences that we have when we're young, in which, you know, just an encounter, just a strange old guy. But they will, as I say, they will never, ever forget this encounter.