James Joyce: A Passionate Exile - Hardcover

McCourt, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312269412 ISBN 13: 9780312269418

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001

Synopsis

James Joyce: A Passionate Exile is a revealing new account of the life, times and writings of the twentieth century's most distinguished novelist. Combining words with an extraordinary collection of contemporary photographs and other images, it depicts his family's fall from riches to rags and his experience of growing up in late nineteenth century Dublin. Author and Joyce scholar John McCourt also examines Joyce's relationship with his life-long partner, Nora Barnacle, and casts new light on their 40-year voluntary exile in Europe, first in the cosmopolitan Adriatic port of Trieste, then in lively wartime Zurich and finally in Paris, the artistic centre of the world in the 1920s and 30s.

Exile from Ireland was a necessary condition for Joyce to forge in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race in his magnificent short story collection Dubliners, in his intense bildungsroman A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and his modern epic Ulysses.

About this title

About the Author:

John McCourt is from Dublin. He was educated at Belvedere College and University College, Dublin, where he obtained his PhD for a thesis on Joyce's Trieste experiences. He has been living and working in Trieste since 1991. He is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Trieste, where he is also programme director of the university's annual Trieste Joyce School.

From Library Journal:

Described in the author's foreword as "a swift gallop over familiar territory," this lavishly illustrated biography is a triumph of the picture editor's craft, reproducing all the major photos of Joyce as well as unusual background illustrations to his life and times. McCourt (literature, Univ. of Trieste) recently published James Joyce: Years of Bloom, an in-depth study of Joyce's years in Trieste (1904-20), and this work is, in some ways, a companion piece, focusing on exile as the central motif of Joyce's life. One may quibble about the targeted audience, as McCourt admits to being "hugely dependent on all the previous biographies." There are also no source notes. Nevertheless, this is a wonderfully concise yet erudite introduction to a writer who often seems walled off by scholarly apparatus. A beautiful work at a reasonable price; for general and specialized collections. Shelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312269412
• ISBN 13: 9780312269418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112