James Joyce Author Biography

Irish Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer, Famous for Ulysses

Feb 4, 2008

Brief biography British-born writer James Joyce, one of the most important 20th century writers, who wrote Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Irish novelist, poet and short-story writer James Joyce (1882-1941), is famous for Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners. He invented a new kind of storytelling and experimented to create a way of writing unlike anything before his time. Ulysses had a huge influence on many 20th century writers.

Early Years of James Joyce

James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce was born in the Irish city of Dublin on February 2, 1882, the youngest of 10 children. He was educated at strict Catholic schools, in particular, by Jesuits, intended to prepare him for a life as a priest. As a young man Joyce rejected this idea, and the spiritual struggle he went through to reach his decision became a central theme of his writing in later life. He later went to Dublin University College.

While studying at universities in Dublin and Paris, Joyce began to write. His first book, Chamber Music, was published when he was 25 years old. It was a collection of poems.

Influences of James Joyce

Joyce corresponded with the famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Among his other strong influences were Dante and W.B. Yeats. His writings were championed by Ezra Pound. He was a good friend of Samuel Beckett.

Joyce Leaves Ireland for Paris

Distressed by what he felt a bigotry of Catholicism, he went to Paris for a year when he was 20 years old. There, he wrote some poetry, but lived in poverty. He returned to Ireland briefly for his mother's death and stayed in the Martello Tower, which is featured in Ulysses.

He eventually left Ireland with his lifelong companion Nora Barnacle to live in Paris, although the couple settled in Switzerland for awhile.

James Joyce the Novelist

The genius of Joyce became apparent in his novels. His first, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is based on his early life. It is also reminiscent of Virginia Woolf, with the use of the famous stream-of-consciousness technique which tells the story through thoughts and feelings of the main character. In his novel, the hero is a sensitive young man who rejects religion and decides to become a great writer.

His masterpiece, Ulysses, was written while Joyce was living in Italy and Switzerland. It returns to the central character of his first novel, this time a struggling writer living in Dublin. The events in the book take place in a day in Dublin, but Joyce describes so completely the thoughts of his characters that people claimed he had summed up superbly the whole of human life in this one book.

Works by James Joyce

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