Dubliners is a collection of short stories by which author?

• A. Virginia Woolf
• B. James Joyce
• C. Samuel Beckett
• D. William Faulkner

Answer: (B)

At its heart, this question tests knowledge of who wrote a famous set of linked short stories. Dubliners is a collection of fifteen stories written by James Joyce, published in 1914. The stories portray life in Dublin around the turn of the century and are celebrated for their clear realism, nuanced social observation, and themes of paralysis and sudden illumination or epiphanies. This collection is also seen as a bridge in Joyce’s career, moving toward the experimental techniques he would develop further in Ulysses. The other authors mentioned are known for different works: Virginia Woolf for novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Samuel Beckett for plays such as Waiting for Godot, and William Faulkner for novels like The Sound and the Fury. James Joyce is the author behind Dubliners.