James Joyce and Ulysses

Posted by Tel Asiado Feb 2, 2009

February 2 is significant to Joyce and his masterpiece Ulysses.

This day, February 2 (1882) James Joyce is born in Rathgar, just outside the city of Dublin, in Ireland. It was also on this day in 1922, forty years later, when Ulysses, his masterpiece was published.

When James Joyce was in his early 20s, he met Nora Barnacle and fell in love and they left IReland together. Then one day Joyce decided to write a novel abaout "one day" in Dublin. He chose the day that he and Nora had gone on their first date which was 16th of June, 1904. The day has been dubbed "Bloomsday" because the main character of Ulysses is Leopold Bloom.

It took him seven years to complete Ulysses which turned out to be his masterpiece. He had problems finding a publisher. Then critics thought it was too experimental, even somewhat obscene. One day, a friend who owned a bookstore in Paris decided to publish it herself.

Joyce also wrote other popular books:

• Dubliners, 1914
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916
• Finnegans Wake (1939).

Here's the brief biography of James Joyce.