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
The Conchologist's First Book he explained the book: "I wrote it in conjunction with Professor Thomas Wyatt, and Professor McMultrie... my name being put to the work, as best known and most likely to aid its circulation. I wrote the Preface and Introduction, and translated from Cuvier, the accounts of the animals, etc. "All" School-books are necessarily made in a similar way." A second edition appeared in 1840 with Poe's name on the title page, but the 1845 edition appeared without it. Wyatt's book, in turn, had taken much material from "The Conchologist's Textbook" by the British naturalist Thomas Brown without attribution. Brown's book