The Portable James Joyce, edited and with an introduction by Harry Levin, includes four of the six books on which Joyce's astonishing reputatuion is founded: A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man; his Collected Poems (including Chamber Music); Exiles, Joyce's only drama; and his volume of short stories, Dubliners. In addition, there is a generous sampling from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, including the famous "Anna Livia Plurabelle" episode.
In 1902, following his graduation, he went to Paris, thinking he might attend medical school there, but he soon gave up attending lectures and devoted himself to writing poems and prose sketches, and formulating an "aesthetic system'." Recalled to Dublin in April 1903 because of the fatal illness of his mother, he circled slowly towards his literary career. During the summer of 1904 he met a young woman from Galway, Nora Barnacle, and persuaded her to go with him to the Continent, where he planned to teach English.The young couple spent a few months in Pola (now in Yugoslavia), then in 1905 moved to Trieste, where, except for seven months in Rome and three trips to Dublin, they lived until June 1915. They had two children, a son and a daughter. His first book, the poems of Chamber Music, was published in London in 1907, and Dubliners, a book of stories, in 1914. Italy's entrance into the First World War obliged Joyce to move to Zürich, where he remained until 1919. During this period he published A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Exiles, a play (1918).
After a brief return to Trieste following the armistice, Joyce determined to move to Paris so as to arrange more easily for the publication of Ulysses, a book which he had been working on since 1914. It was, in fact, published on his birthday in Paris, in 1922, and brought him international fame. The same year he began work on Finnegan's Wake, and though much harassed by eye troubles, and deeply affected by his daughter's mental illness, he completed and published that book in 1939. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he went to live in Unoccupied France, then managed to secure permission in December 1940 to return to Zürich. Joyce died there six weeks later, on 13 January 1941, and was buried in the Fluntern Cemetery.
Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).
Editor's Introduction
Dubliners
Editor's Preface The Sisters An Encounter Araby Eveline After the Race Two Gallants The Boarding House A Little Cloud Counterparts Clay A Painful Case Ivy Day in the Committee Room A Mother Grace The Dead
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Editor's Preface
Exiles
Editor's Preface
Collected Poems
Editor's Preface Chamber Music, I to XXXVI Pomes Penyeach:
Tilly Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba A Flower Given to My Daughter She Weeps Over Rahoon Tutto è Sciolto On the Beach at Fontana Simples Flood Nightpiece Alone A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight Bahnhofstrasse A Prayer
Other Poems:
The Holy Office Gas from a Burner Ecce Puer
FromUlysses
Editor's Preface Nestor Hades The Wandering Rocks The Sirens Penelope
From Finnegans Wake
Editor's Preface Here Comes Everybody Anna Livia Plurabelle Tales Told of Shem and Shaun
Bibliographical Note
ALC59
Posted January 8, 2012
I love James Joyce... great book!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Overview
The Portable James Joyce, edited and with an introduction by Harry Levin, includes four of the six books on which Joyce's astonishing reputatuion is founded: A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man; his Collected Poems (including Chamber Music); Exiles, Joyce's only drama; and his volume of short stories, Dubliners. In addition, there is a generous sampling from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, including the famous "Anna Livia Plurabelle" episode.