NORA: The Real Life of Molly Bloom [Hardcover]

Brenda Maddox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 1988

In 1904, having known each other for only three months, a young woman named Nora Barnacle and a not yet famous writer named James Joyce left Ireland together for Europe -- unwed. So began a deep and complex partnership, and eventually a marriage, which endured for thirty-seven years.
This is the true story of Nora, the woman who, transformed by Joyce's imagination, became Molly Bloom, arguably the most famous female character in twentieth-century literature. It is also the story of Ireland, a social history encapsulated in the vivid recreation of Joyce and his small Irish entourage abroad. Ultimately it is the portrait of a relationship -- of Nora's complicated, committed, and at times shocking relationship with a hardworking, hard drinking genius and with his work.
In NORA: THE REAL LIFE OF MOLLY BLOOM, the award-winning biographer Brenda Maddox has given us a powerful new lens through which to see both James Joyce and the woman who was in turn his inspiration and his salvation.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Not only is this a highly engaging Joyce family biographybrightly written, scrupulously researched and full of intimate, little-known Joyceanait also gives an important thrust to a scholarly opinion now gathering force: that far from being an insignificant factor in her husband's work, Nora was the inspiration for Ulysses's Molly Bloom, Finnegans Wake's Anna Livia Plurabelle and principal females in all his other writings. Though she was semiliterate and never read Ulysses, Galway-bred Nora was intelligent, humorous and strong; and, for the exiled Joyce, she was Ireland. This account of how she stood by her hard-drinking, thriftless "genius" through years of poverty, physical tribulations and endless nomadism is deeply touching. Others figure prominently in the storymost notably Joyce's brother Stanislaus, benefactor Harriet Weaver, his first publisher Sylvia Beach and the Joyce's two children, Lucia, who went mad, and Giorgio whose career as a singer was disastrousyet the figure who shines through in the freshest, strongest light is Nora. The reader may well agree that Joyce could not have written any of his books without her. Maddox's previous books include Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor and Married and Gay. Illustrations.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Nora Joyce has long been seen as a shrew who was a poor cook, basically illiterate, and an unlikely helpmate for the greatest novelist of the 20th century. Maddox presents a different Noraperfectly ordinary, in the Joycean sense of the word. A caring, devoted wife, with a sharp tongue, fine wit, and strong sense of survival, Nora not only made Joyce a man, but also, at least in part, the author he was. Nora was the model for many of Joyce's heroines, from Lily in "The Dead" to Molly of Ulysses and Anna Livia Plurabelle of Finnegans Wake. A carefully written, sensitive study that offers many new insights on the Joyces' family life. Essential for Joyceans. Donald Kaczvinsky, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1ST edition (June 16, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395365104
• ISBN-13: 978-0395365106
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,607,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, James

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful and compelling look into a life and a marriage, January 3, 2003

By 

Yvonne W. Lynch (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom (Paperback)

The story of Nora and James Joyce's unconventional relationship and how it shaped the writings of one of history's most controversial authors. This book is nothing short of riveting, both in terms of the story it is telling and the way it is told. It explores the influence Nora held over Joyce in his life and his writing and gives countless examples of how he used the experiences of those around him in his books. More than anything, this is the story of a woman struggling to hold her life and her family together in the face of hardship after hardship. A truly incredible read that I couldn't put down until the last page - I even read the bibliography!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The perfect companion, October 15, 2005

By 

James Peter Walsh (roseburg, oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom (Paperback)

This is the perfect companion to Richard Ellmans bio of JJ. I first read it when it came out a few years ago and I found it to be a good "other side of the story". Much has been made of Joyce's letters to his wife and of her being the model for Molly Bloom. He must have been a happy man if that was the case. She was all woman.

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and a pleasure to read, January 26, 2012

By 

vladb "vladb" (Brighton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom (Paperback)

This is a great counterpart to the authoritative work by Richard Ellmann, and the picture of the Joyces' family life is incomplete without reading both. While not as academic as Ellmann's biography, "Nora" is a highly enjoyable page-turner, with some quality analysis alongside dozens of interesting anecdotes and insights from the Joyces' contemporaries. It really shows that Maddox has done extensive research. As the book continues past 1941, anyone curious about the later lives of Nora and her children should read it.