James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work [Hardcover]

A. Nicholas Fargnoli (Author), A Nicholas Fargnoli and Michael Patrick (Author), Michael Patrick Gillespie (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0816029040 | ISBN-13: 978-0816029044 | Publication Date: August 1995

(series copy) These encyclopedic companions are browsable, invaluable individual guides to authors and their works. Useful for students, but written with the general reader in mind, they are clear, concise, accessible, and supply the basic cultural, historical, biographical and critical information so crucial to an appreciation and enjoyment of the primary works. Each is arranged in an A-Z fashion and presents and explains the terms, people, places, and concepts encountered in the literary worlds of James Joyce, Mark Twain, and Virginia Woolf. As a keen explorer of the mundane material of everyday life, James Joyce ranks high in the canon of modernist writers. He is arguably the most influential writer of the twentieth-century, and may be the most read, studied, and taught of all modern writers. The James Joyce A-Z is the ideal companion to Joyce's life and work. Over 800 concise entries relating to all aspects of Joyce are gathered here in one easy-to-use volume of impressive scope.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This unique volume...gathers an impressive amount of information about Joyce in one tidy package. This is a delightful and helpful volume...A worthy candidate for serious literature collections."-- Library Journal

"Browsers will find previously unknown material, as well as new light on what they have already grasped."--Times Literary Supplement

"Unexpected and thought-provoking essays such as the one on Henri Matisse or the compelling explication on "Oxen of the Sun" contribute to this must-have encyclopedia for Joyce lovers on the run." --Literature in Transition

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

A. Nicholas Fargnoli is Professor of Theology and English at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York. He is vice president of the James Joyce Society and founder of the Finnegans Wake Society of New York that meets regularly at the historic Gotham Book Mart in New York City.
Michael Patrick Gillespie is Professor of English at Marquette University. He is the author of Reading the Book Himself: Narrative Strategies in the Works of James Joyce (1989).
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Facts on File (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816029040
• ISBN-13: 978-0816029044
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,563,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, James

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wide-ranging, well-written browsing material!, September 5, 2000

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings (Literary a to Z's) (Paperback)

Presents, in alphabetical order, brief (one paragraph to about 2 pages) synopses and explanations of people, places, themes, and phrases form several of Joyce's works, including his major novels and his poetry. Wonderful as either a tool for decoding Joyce, or as "skimming material." It's a treat to just wander through these pages, seeing explanations for `Finnegan' across from those for "Dubliners," a biography of T.S. Eliot one page after a description of the fictional "Earwicker."

Includes over 800 entries, illustrations, synopses of books and chapters, biographies of Joyce and his contemporaries, bibliography, a very useful index, as well as the text of Jude Woolsey's ruling to lift the ban on "Ulysses." The writing is clear, wide-ranging, and complete without bogging the reader down in minutiae. Not as thorough as the encyclopedic "Ulysses Annotated," but very useful in disentangling Joyce and his works without great effort! Written by a Professor of Theology and English at Molloy College (and vice president of the James Joyce Society), and a professor of English at Marquette University.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tons of fascinating information, plus guide to Ulysses!, August 31, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings (Literary a to Z's) (Paperback)

Elvis, the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe have received the A to Z treatment in which every aspect of their lives and works have been reordered alphabetically, so it was only a matter of time that the mania would spread to lesser figures in our popular culture, in this case Mark Twain, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

This series of three books, originally published by Facts On File and now updated and reprinted by Oxford University Press, combines facts culled from the writers' lives and works, shakes them up thoroughly, and recasts them into easily locatable entries. The result is an addictive pleasure, a page-turning odyessy for anyone interested in learning more about their favorite writer.

At 304 pages, the Joyce volume is the smallest of the trio, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up by offering extensive commentaries on "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake." Those who have tried to read these modernist (or post-modernist, the argument still rages) classics have quickly recognized the need for assistance. For "Ulysses," the Joyce volume reprints Joyce's chart that lists each chapter's time frame, location, symbols, technics, organs, art and correspondences to the original. Each chapter is given its own entry, which describes the action, Joyce's intentions, and clairifies points of Dublin's history. As one who attempted "Ulysses" solo, and suffered for his sin, I can speak with authority that this volume would have saved me a great deal of agony. I only wish they had abandoned their schema and combined the chapter descriptions into a single, lengthy appendix.

No detail is too small to escape the editors. There are also entries on Gustave Flaubert, an influence on Joyce's writing style; Throwaway, the race horse whose victory in the Ascot Gold Cup figures in "Ulysses," and the Volta Cinema, Dublin's first movie theater, which Joyce helped to open.

In short, this guide can help the Joyce reader move through the complexities of his work without feeling like you've earned a Ph.D in comparative literature while you're doing so.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A to Z and then some!, August 5, 2000

By 

Edward C. Montgomery (Kimball, NE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings (Literary a to Z's) (Paperback)

This is an outstanding reference for readers ranging from those having casual interest to serious Joyceans. All of Joyce's works are covered in some depth and the material on Ulysses and Finnegans Wake is fantastic. It includes chapter outlines and summaries. The book is also very good at providing concise summaries of people, places and things in or connected to Joyce's work. I wish I had discovered this book much earlier in my academic career.