First published 1982
Richard Ellmann presents the complete life of James Joyce, from his Dublin childhood through his years of European exile. Ellmann traces Joyce's development from a rebellious young Irish Catholic into the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The biography reveals how Joyce transformed his personal experiences into revolutionary literature while struggling with poverty, family responsibilities, and his daughter's mental illness. Ellmann draws on extensive interviews with Joyce's friends and family, plus access to private letters and manuscripts. He shows how Joyce's relationship with Nora Barnacle sustained him through decades of artistic struggle and financial hardship. The book illuminates Joyce's creative process and the real Dublin people and places that became immortalized in his fiction. Ellmann demonstrates how Joyce's exile from Ireland paradoxically deepened his connection to his homeland.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, 20th-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: exile, family-drama
Setting: Dublin, Europe
Period: 20th-century
887 pages · Hardcover · Oxford University Press