James Joyce

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Ulysses is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. It was not easy to find a publisher in America willing to take it on, and when Jane Jeap and Margaret Anderson started printing extracts from the book in their literary magazine The Little Review in 1918, they were arrested and charged with publishing obscenity. They were fined $100, and...

Originally published in serial format in "The Egoist" between 1914 and 1915, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," is the semi-autobiographical portrayal of James Joyce's early upbringing as an Irish Catholic in late 19th century and early 20th-century Dublin. The novel was originally planned as a 63-chapter autobiographical novel in a realistic style entitled "Stephen Hero" however Joyce reworked the novel into five condensed chapters, dispensing...

"The Dead" is the final and longest story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce. First published in 1904, the stories aim to capture Irish middle class life as it really was around Dublin at the turn-of-the-century. Like many of Joyce's tales in the collection, "The Dead" features a transformative epiphany, where a character experiences a sudden insight into their life that changes the way they see everything. In what...

'That is my fear. That I stand between her and any moments of life that should be hers...' Set against the backdrop of the Home Rule Crisis of 1912, Exiles is James Joyce's only surviving play. It tells the story of writer Richard Rowan and his common-law wife Bertha, characters drawn from Joyce's own life with Nora Barnacle. After a decade of absence from Dublin, Richard and Bertha have returned home from Rome, still unmarried, with their young son...

The final (and longest) story in James Joyce's short story collection "The Dubliners," "The Dead" is one of Joyce's most beloved works of short fiction. Taking place at Christmastime, the tale revolves around Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta, who are attending a holiday party hosted by Gabriel's elderly aunts. In typical Joycean style, this seemingly mundane setting hides many of the guests' secrets and mysteries, not the least of which is...

Influential and innovative, James Joyce (1882–1941) led the vanguard of twentieth-century fiction. Sooner or later, most undergraduates encounter him, and many scholars devote their entire careers to his exuberantly eloquent prose. Joyce's experimental use of language and stream-of-consciousness techniques continues to captivate modern readers and writers, and this anthology offers a first-rate introduction to the Irish author's fiction and poetry....

Hay que leer Retrato del artista adolescente con ojos absolutamente inocentes, dejándonos conducir solo por las palabras mediante las cuales se crea como obra de arte. En esta dirección Retrato del artista adolescente mantiene nuestro gozo de lectores durante todo su desarrollo siendo fiel nada mas a la exigencia de ir contando, de hacerse existir siempre como una obra redonda en la que nada interrumpe el placer narrativo. El desarrollo de la acción...

After a scandal breaks out involving a famous Irish Nationalist politician, Stephen Dedalus finds his family being torn apart over their differing opinions of the matter. Shaken by all the fighting and animosity, Stephen begins to wonder where he can place his faith. Questioning the Irish and Catholic ideology that he was raised on, Stephen begins to rebel against expectations as he departs for college. While he excels in his studies, Stephen struggles...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was ranked by Modern Library as the third greatest English-language novel of the 20th century. It is a semi-autobiographical novel chronicling the spiritual and intellectual awakening and rebellion of Stephen Dedalus against the conventions into which he was born. Exuberantly inventive in style, the novel subtly and beautifully orchestrates the patterns of quotation and repetition instrumental in its hero's...