February 2, 1882 – Birthday of James Joyce

James Joyce in 1926

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet who is considered to be one of the most influential and difficult writers of modern times. He is best known for his 1922 novel Ulysses, often ranked as one of the greatest books ever written, which describes a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly, and Stephen Dedalus, a young would-be-writer — a character based on Joyce himself. (Molly is based on Joyce’s wife Nora Barnacle.) Even now, this day, June 16, is celebrated around the world with “Bloomsday” celebrations, the festivities for which include public readings from the novel, scene reenactments (particularly the famous last chapter consisting of eight long sentences spoken by Molly Bloom), listening to traditional Irish music, and/or visiting Irish pubs. You can download a free audiobook of Ulysses here.

Joyce is also the author of the very formidable book Finnegans Wake, published in 1939, which highlighted his genius (or madness), encyclopedic knowledge, and inscrutability. Some call it a “prose-poem” rather than a novel. Joyce himself explained his radically different approach to language and plot in a 1926 letter outlining his intentions for the book: “One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible by the use of wide-awake language, cut-and-dry grammar and go-ahead plot.”

In January 1992 Patrick Healy, a Dublin writer, recorded the complete text of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake in Bow Lane Recording Studios, Dublin, over a four-day period. The complete set consists of 17 segments of a little over an hour each, a total of 21 hours. Scholars contend that listening to the book can confer meaning on what doesn’t seem to make sense on the page. You can find more information about it here.

Patrick Healy