John Stanislaus Joyce: The Voluminous Life and Genius of James Joyce's Father - Hardcover

Jackson, John Wyse; Costello, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312185995 ISBN 13: 9780312185992

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1998

Synopsis

Recounts the life of a quintessential Dubliner in a changing city, and shows how he and his experiences found their way into his son's works

About this title

Review:

It is ironic that a man who scarcely wrote a word in his life, failing even to write letters to friends, fathered one of the 20th century's greatest master of words. John Stanislaus Joyce--father of novelist James--had much to say, for sure, but his media were the witty turn of phrase and off-the-cuff song, his stage, the pub. John Stanislaus was raised in Cork then educated in Dublin. Here he quickly rose to prominence in the local pubs where he shared his passionate Irish nationalism and fervor for sports with bar mates. Though he received a comfortable inheritance in early adulthood, Joyce the elder was, by all accounts, a terrible money manager. In fact the few letters he ever wrote were loan requests; thus the Joyce home was loving but often impermanent, shifting with the tides of fortune. Joyce's most important gift to his son James was his contribution to his fiction. John Stanislaus is the model for the hero of Finnegan's Wake and his "memories and extravagant idioms" are the foundation of Ulysses's Leopold Bloom. Writers John Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello include in this biography some of James's character sketches of his father--a real treat for Joyce fans and scholars.

About the Author:

John Wyse Jackson is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and author of James Joyce's Dubliners: An Annotated Edition and The Uncollected Oscar Wilde.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0312185995
• ISBN 13: 9780312185992
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 493