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Joyce James 1882 - 1941 (59)

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.


QUOTES

ULYSSES

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
—Introibo ad altare Dei.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely:
—Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!

James Joyce was an Irish writer and poet, one of the leading literary figures of the 20th century, the author, among others, of the emblematic novel "Ulysses". Born in Dublin, in 1882, he was the eldest child of ten brothers. His father was a liberal and against the clergy, his mother was a fanatical Catholic; the family was wealthy but later was driven to bankruptcy and poverty due to bad financial decisions and alcoholism of the father. By 1898, James had interrupted his studies at two colleges, for lack of money at the first, because it was run by Jesuits at the second; In the end he study English, Italian, French. At the same time he started writnig and became active in the theatrical and literary circles of the city. In 1900 he published his first work and the following year he wrote many reviews on newspaper and two plays that were of no value and were soon forgotten. After graduating he went to Paris to study medicine but he soon abandoned this plan. In April 1903 he returned to Dublin as his mother was ill, she died a few months later. She had asked him to pray together but he had refused, saying he did not believe, and this tormented him for the rest of his life. In 1904 he finished the novel "The Portrait of an Artist", which was rejected by the publishers.

On June 10, 1904 he was captivated by a young redhead in the street, he stopped her and convinced her to meet him 5 days later. On June 15 the girl was unable to leave from the hotel she was working as a maid and waitress, he managed to meet her the next day, on June 16. The girl called Nora and became his life partner; the date of their meeting is celebrated as a literary anniversary named Bloomsday, as in his novel "Ulysses", he monitor the life of Leopold Bloom during one day, from morning until night of June 16. James and Nora lived initially in Zurich and then for 15 years in Trieste where they had their first son. Joyce taught English and wrote stories and novels; for one year he settled in Rome where he worked as a bank clerk. Periodically he was visiting Dublin, and in 1909 tried to become a businessman by setting up a cinema. The plan did not go well and returned to Trieste and literature. In 1914 he wrote a collection of short stories "The Dubliners" and in 1916, "Portrait of the Artist" was published, first in the magazine Egoist and then as a book. By the end of the First World War they had moved to Paris where they remained for the next twenty years. Their second child was born there. The writing of Ulysses had started in 1914 and finished around 1921, it was published in 1922. Previously the first chapters were published in magazines and as a result the publication of the book was banned in England and America. With this project Joyce introduced the technique of interior monologue, impacting profoundly on subsequent writers. Only in his last decade Joyce had acquired financial comfort and on July 4, 1931 after 27 years of happy life together, he married Nora. On December 14, 1940 he left Paris, almost blind, to Zurich where he died on January 13, 1941 from advanced ulcer. Nora died 10 years later.