Dubliners is a collection of short stories & anthologies written by Irish literature & fiction novelist and poet James Joyce and first published in 1914. Through fifteen short stories & anthologies, James Joyce's Dubliners depicts Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The Irish short stories & anthologies were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They center on James Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. More than a century since the first publication of this classic literature & fiction collection of Irish short stories & anthologies, Dubliners is often required textbook reading.