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 Idiots (short story) The Idiots (short story) "The Idiots" is a short story by Joseph Conrad, his first to be published. It first appeared in "The Savoy" in 1896. The story was included in the Conrad collection "Tales of Unrest", published in 1898. Set in Britanny, the story describes a couple whose children have intellectual disability; the strain on the family leads eventually to murder. The story was written during Joseph Conrad's honeymoon; he rented a house on Île-Grande, on the north coast of Brittany, from April to August 1896. His wife Jessie later wrote that "much of our Île-Grande life is in