Dubliners was published by Grant Richards, London, on 15 June 1914, in a first printing of 1,250 copies priced at 3s 6d. The book had been accepted by Richards in 1905 but was delayed nine years by a series of publishing catastrophes: printers refused to set type for passages they considered obscene or libellous; Richards withdrew his offer; another publisher (Maunsel & Company, Dublin) accepted the manuscript, typeset it, then destroyed the sheets in 1912 after demanding changes Joyce refused to make. When Richards finally published the book in 1914, Joyce was living in Trieste, had written A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and was deep into Ulysses. Of the 1,250 copies printed, only 379 were sold in the first year.
The Stories
Dubliners contains fifteen stories arranged in four groups: childhood (“The Sisters,” “An Encounter,” “Araby”), adolescence (“Eveline,” “After the Race,” “Two Gallants,” “The Boarding House”), maturity (“A Little Cloud,” “Counterparts,” “Clay,” “A Painful Case”), and public life (“Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” “A Mother,” “Grace”), concluding with “The Dead” — the collection’s crown.
Joyce described his intention as writing “a chapter of the moral history of my country” and chose Dublin because “that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis.” The word “paralysis” — introduced in the collection’s first sentence — is the key to every story. Characters are trapped: by poverty, by convention, by the church, by their own timidity, by Ireland’s colonial condition. They glimpse possibility (Eveline at the dock, watching the ship she cannot board; the boy in “Araby” arriving at the bazaar as it closes) and fail to act.
“The Dead” — the final story, written after the others and longer than any two combined — is generally considered the greatest short story in the English language. Gabriel Conroy, an intellectually vain Dublin literary man, attends his aunts’ annual Christmas party. Over the course of the evening, his self-image is systematically dismantled — by Miss Ivors’s political challenge, by his wife Gretta’s distant absorption in a song, and finally by Gretta’s revelation that the song reminded her of Michael Furey, a boy who died for love of her in Galway. Gabriel’s final meditation — “snow was general all over Ireland” — dissolves the boundaries between living and dead, between self and world.
Collecting Dubliners
First edition (1914, Grant Richards, London): 1,250 copies, priced at 3s 6d.
Identification points:
- “First published in 1914” on the copyright page
- Published by Grant Richards Ltd
- Dark red cloth boards with gold lettering on spine
- No dust jacket issued (copies in jackets are suspect)
First edition:
- Fine copy: $30,000–$80,000
- Near Fine: $15,000–$30,000
- Very Good: $8,000–$15,000
- Reading copy with wear: $3,000–$8,000
The tiny print run (1,250 copies), the poor initial sales (many copies were remaindered or destroyed), and over a century of attrition make fine copies genuinely rare.
Signed copies: Extremely rare. Joyce did not sign copies routinely, and the book sold poorly in its early years. Signed or inscribed copies: $100,000+.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for fine copies. Joyce is among the most consistently strong authors in rare book collecting — institutional demand is essentially unlimited.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was publication delayed nine years? Printers objected to specific passages (use of the word “bloody,” references to real Dublin businesses and people, implied sexual content). Joyce refused all changes on principle. The saga of Dubliners’ suppression is one of the great publishing horror stories.
Is “The Dead” really the greatest short story in English? It appears at or near the top of virtually every critical ranking. Its combination of social comedy, psychological depth, emotional power, and lyrical transcendence is unmatched in the form.
Should I read this before Ulysses? It provides excellent preparation — introducing Dublin geography, Irish social types, and Joyce’s method of epiphany. Several Dubliners characters reappear in Ulysses.