Reading Joyce - Softcover

Pierce, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405840617 ISBN 13: 9781405840613

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

`Is there one who understands me?'

So wrote James Joyce towards the end of his final work, Finnegans Wake. The question continues to be asked about the author who claimed that he had put so many enigmas into Ulysses that it would `keep the professors busy for centuries' arguing over what he meant. For Joyce this was a way of ensuring his immortality, but it could also be claimed that the professors have served to distance Joyce from his audience, turning his writings into museum pieces, pored over and admired, but rarely touched. In this remarkable book, steeped in the learning gained from a lifetime's reading, David Pierce blends word, life and image to bring the works of one of the great modern writers within the reach of every reader. With a sharp eye for detail and an evident delight in the cadences of Joyce's work, Pierce proves a perfect companion, always careful and courteous, pausing to point out what might otherwise be missed. Like the best of critics, his suggestive readings constantly encourage the reader back to Joyce's own words.

Beginning with Dubliners and closing with Finnegans Wake, Reading Joyce is full of insights that are original and illuminating, and Pierce succeeds in presenting Joyce as an author both more straightforward and infinitely more complex than we had perhaps imagined. T. S. Eliot wrote of Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, that it is `a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape'. With David Pierce as a guide, the debt we owe to Joyce becomes clearer, and the need to flee is greatly reduced. 

About this title

Book Description:

Many books have deciphered Joyce, and some of them have become classics - e.g., Harry Levin's James Joyce (1941) and Richard Kain's The Fabulous Voyager (1947). The majority of these works reveal dedicated interests and immerse themselves in a particular work, usually Ulysses. Many are intended for specialists. In this volume, Pierce writes for the Joyce apprentice. In 11 chapters - one an introduction, one on Finnegans Wake, and several on Dubliners, A Portrait, and Ulysses - Pierce humbly reveals his own journey and wrestlings. He contributes richly out of his 40-year legacy in writing and teaching Joyce, his Irish origins, and Catholic schooling. He suggests new approaches to difficult texts, offers helpful auxiliary bibliography, and offers copious pictures, which intersperse with text in keeping with the book's interactive flavor. Although some may find the desultory nature of the book - particularly its amalgam of biography and autobiography - disconcerting, others will find it enriching. Certainly Pierce succeeds in providing novice Joyce readers with a work that charms, enhances, and motivates. Recommended. - R. R. Joly.

From the Publisher:

Reading Joyce acts as a bridge into the world of Joyce and a deeper understanding of the man and his work. It is designed to give the reader confidence in reading and really appreciating the brilliance of Joyce. In addition, it provides the student with a sharp insight into the complex social, political and historical context of Joyce's fiction. Numerous illustrations and photographs in each chapter bring Joyce and his world to life. The book includes two previously unpublished photographs of the printing rooms of the Freeman's Journal, the setting for the newspaper episode in Ulysses. Its great strength is that it is written by a leading authority who has been teaching Joyce for thirty years and who has a keen understanding of what today's reader needs to get started on reading one of the great modern writers in English.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1405840617
• ISBN 13: 9781405840613
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384