James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish
expatriate author of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses
(1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story
collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man (1916).

Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional
universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much
of the subject matter for all his fiction. In particular, his tempestuous early relationship with
the Irish Roman Catholic Church is reflected through a similar inner conflict in his
recurrent alter ego Stephen Dedalus. As the result of his minute attentiveness to a
personal locale and his self-imposed exile and influence throughout Europe, notably in
Paris, Joyce became paradoxically one of the most cosmopolitan yet one of the most
regionally-focused of all the English language writers of his time.

Life - Dublin: 1882-1904

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 to John Stanislaus Joyce
and Mary Jane Murray in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was the oldest of 10 surviving
children; two of his siblings died of typhoid. His father's family, originally from Fermoy in
Cork, had once owned a small salt and lime works. Joyce's father and paternal
grandfather both married into wealthy families. In 1887, his father was appointed rate (i.e.,
a local property tax) collector by Dublin Corporation; the family subsequently moved to the
fashionable adjacent small town of Bray 12 miles (19 km) from Dublin. Around this time
Joyce was attacked by a dog; this resulted in a lifelong canine phobia. He also suffered
from a fear of thunderstorms, which his deeply religious aunt had described to him as
being a sign of God's wrath.

Exiles and poetry

Main articles: Pomes Penyeach and Chamber Music (book)

Despite early interest in the theatre, Joyce published only one play, Exiles, begun shortly
after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and published in 1918. A study of a husband and
wife relationship, the play looks back to The Dead (the final story in Dubliners) and forward
to Ulysses, which was begun around the time of the play's composition.

Joyce also published a number of books of poetry. His first mature published work was
the satirical broadside "The Holy Office" (1904), in which he proclaimed himself to be the
superior of many prominent members of the Celtic revival. His first full-length poetry
collection Chamber Music (referring, Joyce explained, to the sound of urine hitting the side
of a chamber pot) consisted of 36 short lyrics. This publication led to his inclusion in the
Imagist Anthology, edited by Ezra Pound, who was a champion of Joyce's work. Other
poetry Joyce published in his lifetime includes "Gas From A Burner" (1912), Pomes
Penyeach (1927) and "Ecce Puer" (written in 1932 to mark the birth of his grandson and
the recent death of his father). It was published in Collected Poems (1936).

Legacy

Joyce's work has been subject to intense scrutiny by scholars of all types. He has also
been an important influence on writers and scholars as diverse as Hugh MacDiarmid,
Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges,[ Flann O'Brien, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Salman Rushdie,
Robert Anton Wilson, and Joseph Campbell.

Download the Following Books:
James Joyce : In Brief
Ulysses
Chamber Music
The Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce Totally Explained
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James Joyce