Published in 1914, 'Dubliners' was Joyce's first major work, written whilst living in self-imposed exile in Trieste. A collection of fifteen short stories dealing with fleeting episodes in the everyday lives of ordinary Dubliners, it forms what Joyce called 'a chapter of moral history... the first step toward the spiritual liberation of my country.'

Written in a frank, realistic style of 'scrupulous meanness', 'Dubliners' is a key landmark in the development of modern narrative prose. Following his master, Flaubert, and building on his earlier 'epiphanies' (attempts at directly reproducing moments of heightened experience), Joyce tried to eliminate the moralising, explaining authorial voice that had dominated nineteenth century fiction, composing his narrative solely from the speech and perceptions of his characters. From the opening story, in which a young boy attending a priest's funeral suddenly becomes aware of the emptiness of religious ritual, to the final, wistful tale of long-married Gretta Conroy, still grieving for her first young love, Joyce paints an intense and extraordinary portrait of lives full of desire, warmth and longing, transcending the country's stifling Catholicism and strict social conformity.

An undisputed masterpiece of twentieth century literature, 'Dubliners' is Joyce's homage to the city which first inspired and nurtured his creative spirit.