James Joyce

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Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland, and he was raised in a Roman Catholic dominant family with his mother being a successful pianist and his father being a failure at holding a stable household. However, his father was an impressive singer. Joyce was an intelligent and motivated child, so he was able to teach himself Norwegian and other languages. Therefore, he was able to read and analyze many plays that no other monolingual person could. Some books he read as a child greatly influenced his writing later on. For example, after reading “The Adventures of Ulysses”, a children's version of “The Odyssey”. Joyce's role model soon became Odysseus which he later framed his most famous novel, “The Ulysses”, after “The Odyssey” during his writing career. Accordingly, his parents observed his intelligence and forced him to get an education at Clogowes Wood College. Later, he attended Belvedere College, and the Royal University in Dublin. Joyce later moved to Paris to study medicine, but moved back to Ireland when his mother became ill. Eventually, he met his first wife, Nora Barnacle, and published his first story in the Irish Homestead magazine. This didn't keep Joyce in Ireland, so he migrated across the Mediterranean as a foreign languages teacher. Eventually Joyce published his first book, “Dubliners”, in 1914, and “A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man” in 1916. Later, Joyce published “Ulysses” which was set on the same day Joyce and Nora got married, June 16, 1904. After his success with “Ulysses”, Joyce and his family settled in Paris, and he published “Finnegan's Wake” in 1939. Afterwords, World War 2 broke out and the family had to flee to Zürich. At last, Joyce died from a failed intestinal operation, thus...

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...ifs, and a profound theme in his novels have given Joyce a remarkable reputation in British Literature. The symbolism of “Ulysses” to the “Odyssey” has entertained literally scholars, the in-depth motifs “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, and the profound theme of “Dubliners” have clearly distinguished James Joyce among other British authors.

Works Cited

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: Viking, 1964. Print.

---, and Padraic Colum. Dubliner. Middlesex: Penguin, 1991. Print.

"Ulysses by ---. Search EText, Read Online, Study, Discuss." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Jalic Inc. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. .

"James Joyce." 2011. Biography.com. 27 Mar 2011, 10:59 http://www.biography.com/articles/James-Joyce-9358676.

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