James Joyce

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, born on 2 February 1882 in Rathgar, Dublin, and he died on 13 January 1941. He was educated in Jesuit schools and at University College Dublin, then left Ireland as a young man and spent most of his life abroad, in places such as Trieste, Paris and Zurich. Yet Dublin remained the setting and subject of nearly all his work, which he rendered in close and loving detail.

Joyce wrote a story collection, a semi-autobiographical novel, and two enormous, daring novels that changed what fiction could do. He made use of the inner voice of his characters, known as stream of consciousness, and later played with language itself, bending and combining words. His work was often difficult and was at times banned, but he is now regarded as one of the central figures of modern literature.