Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories, first published in 1914, and is a richly detailed evocation of Dublin life in the early years of the 20th century. Containing some of Joyce's most powerful and moving prose, these stories portray unremarkable lives with unflinching realism, and together convey a unique and compelling vision of ordinary human experience. At their centre is Joyce's concept of an epiphany: a moment when a character experiences self-understanding or illumination.