James Joyce (Oxford Lives) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "We are still learning to be James Joyce's contemporaries, to understand our interpreter..." (more)
Key Phrases: intimo spogliato, presentation convent, sont coupés, Finnegans Wake, Miss Weaver, John Joyce (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Although several biographers have thrown themselves into the breach since this magisterial book first appeared in 1959, none have come close to matching the late Richard Ellmann's achievement. To be fair, Ellmann does have some distinct advantages. For starters, there's his deep mastery of the Irish milieu--demonstrated not only in this volume but in his books on Yeats and Wilde. He's also an admirable stylist himself--graceful, witty, and happily unintimidated by his brilliant subjects. But in addition, Ellmann seems to have an uncanny grasp on Joyce's personality: his reverence for the Irishman's literary accomplishment is always balanced by a kind of bemused affection for his faults. Whether Joyce is putting the finishing touches on Ulysses, falling down drunk in the streets of Trieste, or talking dirty to his future wife via the postal service, Ellmann's account always shows us a genius and a human being--a daunting enough task for a fiction writer, let alone the poor, fact-fettered biographer.

Review

"The genius of Ellmann's James Joyce is its abundance of detail--its wealth of anecdotes and letters, recovered conversations, and poems. It's a pleasure to salute this masterly book as it marches past again."--Newsweek

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Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Revised edition (October 20, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195033817
• ISBN-13: 978-0195033816
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Biography, August 20, 2000

By	Mr. Egregious - See all my reviews

It is hard for one to state that any biography can be definitive for one can always point toward areas in a person's life which the reader believes should or could have been better represented or illustrated. However, after reading Ellmann's biography, not doubt lingers that Ellmann has come closest to achieving that title in the realm of human depiction. This text, in its nearly 900 novel-esque pages, not only gives the background of Joyce, but also lends-but rarely forces-the ideas, persons, and events in Joyce's life that influenced his great works. Many have stated that reading this tome will deflate anyone's opinion of the writer, the text revealing the humanistic side of the writer, conversely I found it merely supported and aided my awe in relation to the expansive nature of Joyce's mind and his humble (and hilarious) nature in which he approached his craft. Though some recommend this text prior to reading the masterpieces-Portrait, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake-I find that a minimal amount of familiarity (as least via secondary criticism or summary) is helpful in order to connect the real faces with the fictional ones of Joyce's work.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is impossible to praise this book too highly., January 22, 1999

By	Rodney Welch ([e-mail]) (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews

I've just finished reading this masterful biography, and it has had the magical effect of making me forget all others. This is a simply splendid book -- a life of the greatest writer of the 20th Century that is so scrupulously detailed that one leaves it feeling you personally know and like the subject. Joyce is presented to us from all sides -- as friend, husband, father, drinker, raconteur and most importantly, writer; a man with unparalleled control of the English language and no control of life or money. One measure of the book's genius is that it makes you feel quite close to Joyce toward the end -- as he gets ever blinder and broker, his energy used up by a book he knows will go unread and a daughter who is slowly succumbing to mental illness.

I think of this book now almost as part of the Joyce canon. I'm not sure you can really know Joyce without knowing Ellmann's Joyce, too.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one gets it like Richard Ellman, April 4, 2000

By	Joseph Jordan (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

Richard Ellman was this nation's foremost Joyce scholar for almost three decades, and his great, vast biography is perhaps the best ever written of a literary figure. This book is a wonderful fusion of Ellman's unique critical vision and rigorous biographical technique. Beyond his obviously deep understanding of the subject, Ellman writes in an engaging, eloquent prose that kept me interested for the 750-page sprawl of the book. Going in, I was a vague admirer of Joyce's work; coming out, I felt ready to go forth to encounter for the millionth time the farthest reaches of his fiction.