James Joyce: the master

[Morten]

What do people think here on the forum think of him? What have you read by him?

Personally, I find him rather mind-blowing. In my late teens I was moved by Dubliners (last pages of "The Dead" especially) and The Portrait. But Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake overshadow his previous literary achievements. I've been reading FW lately and am very intriguied, though also aware of the great divide of opinions regarding the work. Nabokov thought it trash; Beckett revered it.

Any thoughts?

[Etienne]

Dubliners is great, Ulysses as well (haven't finished it though), I didn't think Portrait was so great, good but that's all. It had weak moments and some stronger ones.

[Silvia]

I haven't read anything by Joyce, but two days ago a man came to our school and had a lecture on him....He is a genius...such a brilliant author! I filled 4 papers with notes and, honestly, I still find it hard to believe what I heard is actually true! I hope I'm not exaggerating, but I am really enthusiastic about that lecture and I'm looking forward to reading all his works (when I feel I have enough material to make the attempt, though!:p )....the lecturer's speech got me to think: "this is what I want to do for the next 5 years", and now I'm quite sure I'll probably keep on studying literature at University!!

[Etienne]

You can read Dubliners without problem already, Portrait is not very hard to read either, a simple annotated version will contain all you need. To really "read" Ulysses, you will need much more material however and read it at least two times. For Finnegan's Wake... I have no idea, I've only read the last/first sentence in the bookshop, and it looked quite intense.

[knightss]

I love Araby =)

Portrait was excellent as well.

[tractatus]

I like Finnegans Wake, interesting as Ulysses(which took my 6 months to read.) Portrait was -my opinion- below his average. Is he a master? Yes, and very in his "kind".

[Morten]

When reading Ulysses I did what Nabokov urged his students to do: follow Bloom around Dublin on a map. It was quite interesting, actually.

I found it helpful to read about the time Joyce spent writing Ulysses and his correspondences over the years and what influenced him to write the way he did.

I always wonder what could have come after Finnegan's Wake had he lived to write another epic.

[Erichtho]

So far I've only read Dubliners and Portrait and - even though I've liked those works, especially some scenes in Portrait, and the stories Araby and Eveline - I'm not too sure whether I will ever read his other works. Joyce is not to be read in translation and at the moment I highly doubt my English is already sufficient for this.

[Quinn_]

-----

[B-Mental]

I find him inspiring, and truly gifted. Those who can't read him, can't do a lot of other things. Not trying to knock them. Its great to read all of his writings repeatedly. In my 20's it was Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, but Ulysses has been a several year project of lovingly reading a MASTER.