The dominant writer of the twentieth century.

Harold Bloom

James Joyce

Born in Dublin, James Joyce (1882–1941) was a modernist and proponent of the stream-of-consciousness writing style and is widely considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. His works feature primarily Dublin figures such as in the short story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegan’s Wake (1939).

cover image of the book James Joyce / Finnegans Wake: A Symposium

James Joyce / Finnegans Wake: A Symposium

Our Examination Round His Factifiation for Incamination of Work in Progress is unique among the many books Finnegans Wake has evoked from other writers. This symposium was published in Paris ten years before Joyce’s Finnegans Wake was completed. The contributors were all friends or acquaintances of the authors: Samuel Beckett, Marcel Brion, Frank Budgen, Stuart Gilbert, Eugene Jolas, Victor Llona, Robert McAlmon, Thomas McGreevy, Elliot Paul, John Rodker, Robert Sage and William Carlos Williams. There are also ’Letters of Protest’ from G. V. L. Slingsby and Vladimir Dixon. Prepared in such circumstances, with the active encouragement of James Joyce, the book could only have appeared under one imprint, that of Shakespeare and Company, publishers of Ulysses. This edition also includes the characteristic introduction by Miss Sylvia Beach, the original publisher.

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cover image of the book Stephen Hero

Stephen Hero

Stephen Hero is an early version of Joyce’s famous A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It was originally rejected on grounds of indecency—so the story goes—by twenty publishers, whereupon Joyce threw the manuscript in the fire, but Mrs. Joyce rescued several unburnt portions. Although Joyce later entirely rewrote his novel of a young Irishman’s rebellion against church, country and family, this early version is beautifully composed, the mood being more discursive and personal than in A Portrait. Many episodes later cut for the sake of good novelistic form, especially autobiographical episodes of sensual and family life, are fully presented, with some of the most vivacious dialogue Joyce ever wrote. Between them, the two versions give us a clear example of Joyce’s literary development as well as many details of his life.

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The dominant writer of the twentieth century.

Harold Bloom

Joyce revolutionized 20th century fiction.

Time Magazine
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