Dubliners Dubliners Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They 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 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. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in
Ivy Day in the Committee Room the latter story also owes something to his brother Stanislaus' account of his father at work during a Dublin by-election three years earlier. After being rejected by Symon’s publishers, Joyce sent Dubliners (then comprising only twelve stories) to publisher Grant Richards. It took nearly eight years for Dubliners to get published. Going back and forth with Richards, who initially agreed to publish his work, Joyce revised and omitted many things in Dubliners to reach an agreement. However, Richards objected to too many things and eventually simply refused to publish the book. Ireland has a prominent role in Joyce's writing. Having