{"id":3104,"date":"2025-06-13T11:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T11:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/?page_id=3104"},"modified":"2025-06-14T11:40:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T11:40:58","slug":"dubliners-1914","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/james-joyce\/joyces-works\/dubliners-1914\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubliners (1914)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>First serialized: <\/strong>Three stories were first published in <em>The Irish Homestead<\/em> in 1904: &#8220;The Sisters,&#8221; &#8220;Eveline,&#8221; and &#8220;After the Race.&#8221; <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Book publication:<\/strong> London: Grant Richards, 1914<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>by Natascha Mendoza<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Joyce\u2019s <em>Dubliner<\/em> is a collection of fifteen short stories that explore the everyday lives as well as the everyday struggles of the residents of Ireland\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>An Unflinching Portrait of Dublin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joyce&#8217;s stories offer a poignant and often critical look at Joyce\u2019s Dublin, e.g. regarding Irish nationalism, religion, and social norms more generally. The short story collection revolves around the thematic leitmotifs of <em>paralysis<\/em>, <em>gnomon<\/em>, and <em>simony<\/em>, all of which appear on the first page of the first story, \u201cThe Sisters,\u201d and are then continuously revisited in the remaining tales. <em>Dubliner<\/em> can thus also be considered one of the first examples of a short story cycle: a type of text in which the individual stories are interlinked \u2013 a series of tales situated somewhere between a collection of disconnected stories and a fully coherent novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Complicated Publication History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joyce first submitted his book \u2013 which at that point comprised twelve stories \u2013 to Grant Richards in 1905. Richards agreed to publish the book, and Joyce added a thirteenth story in early 1906. However, the printer objected to the content of some of the stories and refused to move ahead with the project. This was because, under UK law, he would have been liable for the publication. Joyce refused to make any changes, and the book was withdrawn. After Joyce had received numerous rejections, the Dublin firm Maunsel &amp; Company accepted the book, which by that point, in 1909, comprised fifteen stories. However, this deal eventually also fell through, and after a re-evaluation the collection was finally published with Grant Richards in 1914.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joyce himself had commented on the importance of his short stories and in an early letter he had written to Richards, on the 23rd of June 1906: \u201cIt is not my fault that the odour of ashpits and old weeds and offal hangs round my stories. I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilisation in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having one good look at themselves in my nicely polished looking-glass.\u201d (<em>Letters<\/em> 63-4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><sup><strong>Source: <\/strong>Joyce, James. <em>Letters<\/em>. Edited by Stuart Gilbert, Faber and Faber, 1957.<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"856\" src=\"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-1024x856.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3106\" style=\"width:437px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-1024x856.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-768x642.jpg 768w, https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-1536x1283.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353-14x12.jpg 14w, https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/365353.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A copy of the first edition of James Joyce&#8217;s <br>short story collection <em>Dubliner <\/em>(1914)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>How Joyce&#8217;s Stories Are Organized<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stories of Childhood<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cThe Sisters\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cAn Encounter\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cAraby\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stories of Adolescence<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cEveline\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cAfter the Races\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cTwo Gallants\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThe Boarding House\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stories of Maturity<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cA Little Cloude\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cCounterparts\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cClay\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cA Painful Case\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stories of Public Life<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cIvy Day in the Committee Room\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cA Mother\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cGrace\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Coda: <\/strong>\u201cThe Dead&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Natascha Mendoza James Joyce\u2019s Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories that explore the everyday lives as well as the everyday struggles of the residents of Ireland\u2019s capital. An Unflinching Portrait of Dublin Joyce&#8217;s stories offer a poignant and often critical look at Joyce\u2019s Dublin, e.g. regarding Irish nationalism, religion, and social norms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":1718,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"wp-custom-template-one-column","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3104","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3152,"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104\/revisions\/3152"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joycefoundation.ch\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}