- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, on 2 February 1882. His father invested unwisely, and the family's fortunes declined steadily. Joyce graduated from University College Dublin (UCD), in 1902. He briefly studied medicine in Paris but his mother's impending death from cancer brought him back to Dublin. In 1904, Joyce began "Stephen Hero", which he later re-worked as "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". He also met Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid, and on 16 June 1904 they went walking at Ringsend, at the Liffey's mouth; Joyce later chose that date for the events recorded in Ulysses.
Having briefly shared a Martello tower at Sandycove, County Dublin, with Oliver St. John Gogarty, he sailed from Dublin with Nora in October 1904. Joyce found work in a language school in Trieste. In 1909, he made two trips to Dublin, to arrange publication of Dubliners, and to open a short-lived cinema. His last visit was in 1912, when he failed to overcome his publisher's doubts about Dubliners. In 1914 the book was published in England, and "A Portrait" was serialised in a London magazine. With the outbreak of World War I, Joyce moved to Zurich in neutral Switzerland, where, in 1917, he underwent the first of many operations for glaucoma. "Ulysses", his masterpiece, was serialised in New York in 1918-20, but eventually halted by a court action.
Joyce returned to Trieste in 1919, then moved to Paris, where, in 1922, "Ulysses" was published by Sylvia Beach, owner of a celebrated bookshop. Its portrait of Dublin, and of the Jewish advertisement canvasser Leopold Bloom, revolutionised the novel with its 'stream of consciousness' technique; it was not published in Britain until 1936. In 1923, Joyce began the almost impenetrable "Finnegans Wake", which was published in 1939. Joyce and Nora finally married in 1931. In 1940, the couple returned to Zurich, where he died on 13 January 1941, aged 58.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ciaran O'Shea
- SpouseNora Barnacle(July 4, 1931 - January 13, 1941) (his death, 2 children)
- RelativesKen Monaghan(Niece or Nephew)
- Complex stream-of-consciousness writing style, multilingual puns, non-use of hyphens.
- Forging in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race
- His works are often set in his hometown of Dublin
- A fan once asked Joyce if he could "shake the hand that wrote Ulysses." Joyce refused, saying "It's done other things as well.".
- Opened the first movie theater in Dublin, Ireland.
- The character of Leopold Bloom was based on Alfred H Hunter, a friend of Joyce's father who had once helped him recover after an alcohol fueled fight.
- His only son Giorgio, and Helen Fleischmann Kastor had a son Stephen James Joyce born in Paris 15 February 1932 and died 23 January 2020 on Île de Ré , Charente-Maritime, France. He was his grandfather's persnickety literary executor and had worked before for the OECD . He was married to Solange Raythchine.
- James Joyce was an accomplished tenor, and won the bronze medal in the 1904 Feis Ceoil.
- I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul. [lecture, 27 April 1907]
- There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being. [from a letter, 22 Nov. 1902, in which Joyce declared his intention of leaving Ireland for good]
- [Upon meeting William Butler Yeats]: "We have met too late; you are too old to be influenced by me."
- A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
- Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.
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