Dubliners (1914) by James Joyce is a collection of fifteen short stories written during the peak of Irish nationalism in the early years of the 20th century. The stories depict Irish middle class and their search for a national identity. "Dubliners retains a special position in the psyche of Irish writers and readers. It has become the most approachable face of the city and its literature. Joyce's excoriation of its foibles may have become blunted by the passage of time and the growth of affection for his most accessible work. But the vernacular specificity of his prose, his profound understanding of the fallibilities of the human condition and his joyous recountings of his city's undercarriage at work, ensure that Dubliners retains a status that few have challenged and even fewer attained."