The Sisters

“The Sisters” is the first story in James Joyce’s 1914 short story collection, Dubliners, considered one of the most important examples of the short story form in the 20th century. Known for a complicated relationship with his native Ireland, Joyce treats the collection’s setting, the city of Dublin, as a complex character. The stories in Dubliners are related to each other, with settings and characters reappearing throughout the collection. While the stories form a cohesive whole, each story is designed to stand alone. “The Sisters” is set in 1895; most of the stories in Dubliners are set at the turn of the century, some years before the book’s publication. The various stories were written (and revised) between 1902 and 1914, when Dubliners was published. “The Sisters” was first published in The Irish Homestead in 1904 and was extensively revised for its inclusion in the collection. This guide focuses on the Dubliners text.

During his career, Joyce developed innovative Modernist techniques, characterized by experimentalism and a conscious break from established modes of writing. His final work, Finnegans Wake (1939), is one of the most experimental works of English literature. As an earlier work, Dubliners is written in a comparatively realistic manner but contains important examples of Modernist literary techniques, like

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