The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904-1920 [Hardcover]

John Mccourt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000

Since the publication of Richard Ellmann's James Joyce in 1959, Joyce has received remarkably little biographical attention. Scholars have chipped away at various aspects of Ellmann's impressive edifice but have failed to construct anything that might stand alongside it. The Years of Bloom is arguably the most important work of Joyce biography since Ellmann. Based on extensive scrutiny of previously unused Italian sources and informed by the author's intimate knowledge of the culture and dialect of Trieste, The Years of Bloom documents a fertile period in Joyce's life.

While living in Trieste, Joyce wrote most of the stories in Dubliners, turned Stephen Hero into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and began Ulysses. Echoes and influences of Trieste are rife throughout Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Though Trieste had become a sleepy backwater by the time Ellmann visited there in the 1950s, McCourt shows that the city was a teeming imperial port, intensely cosmopolitan and polyglot, during the approximately twelve years Joyce lived there in the waning years of the Habsburg Empire. It was there that Joyce experienced the various cultures of central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. He met many Jews, who collectively provided much of the material for the character of Leopold Bloom. He encountered continental socialism, Italian Irredentism, Futurism, and various other political and artistic forces whose subtle influences McCourt traces with literary grace and scholarly rigour. The Years of Bloom, a rare landmark in the crowded terrain of Joyce studies, will instantly take its place as a standard work.

"This book changes our entire view of Joyce's Trieste. It establishes the city as a vibrant microcosm of three cultures. Joyce was born in Dublin, but as John McCourt shows, he grew up in Trieste."-Colm Toíbín

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If we regard biography as a kind of archeology, Joyce's Richard Leakey is unquestionably Richard Ellman, whose 1959 opus James Joyce established the terrain for all future biographies of the great Irish writer. And there have been many. Few, however, quite measure up to McCourt's informative, lucid and wholly engaging record of Joyce in Trieste, which in Joyce's day was as polyglot as Ulysses, as multicultural as any cosmopolitan city of today. Firmly in control of his subject and material, McCourt effortlessly interlaces the details of everyday lifeAmarital storms, economic worries, work habitsAwith larger historical and cultural concerns: Jewish life, the emergence of the futurists, socialist politics. In this milieu, the alchemy of Joyce's most potent art transformed many of the people, places and incidents of Trieste into important sections of Ulysses, which Joyce himself described as "the epic of two races (Israel and Ireland)." Laboring in relative obscurity, Joyce struggled not only with Leopold Bloom, but also with timid publishers who balked when it came to releasing Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While honoring the work of his predecessors in Joyce scholarship, McCourt (who was born and educated in Dublin and now teaches at the University of Trieste) also examines material that was until recently unused or unavailable. This, along with his understanding of the culture and dialect of the once-vibrant port city, deepens our appreciation of Trieste both as a crossroads of cultures and as a profound influence on Joyce's thinking and writing. As one critic has it, "Joyce was born in Dublin... [but] grew up in Trieste." (July.
- grew up in Trieste." (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Richard Ellmann's massive biography of James Joyce (originally issued in 1959 and revised in 1982) has warned off new biographers for many years. McCourt (English, Univ. of Trieste) makes the case for a more detailed study of Joyce's life for nearly 16 formative years and, even more persuasively, for Trieste's seminal influence on Joyce's major works. All of the oeuvre except Finnegans Wake were written while Joyce lived in this cosmopolitan port, and McCourt argues that the life and language of Trieste and the friends and contacts Joyce made there were far more important than Ellmann had thought. McCourt has unearthed a few new sources and successfully debunks some others while painting a detailed picture of life in the then-Italian metropolis. While aimed at Joyce scholars with a detailed knowledge of Joyce's life and writing, the book gives an unusual overview of European political and cultural life in the early years of the century. For specialized collections. (Photographs and index not seen.)DShelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299169804
• ISBN-13: 978-0299169800
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, James

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly researched, documented and accessibly written., January 4, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904-1920 (Hardcover)

John McCourt's The Years Of Bloom: James Joyce In Trieste, 1904-1920 is a remarkable and original contribution to Joycean studies. McCourt was able to acquire information never before published about Joyce's activities in the years he resided in Trieste, and which influenced his career as one of the truly great writers in the English language. Superbly researched, accessibly written, thoroughly documented, and impressively presented, The Years Of Bloom is a major work of outstanding scholarship and a welcome, enduring, seminal contribution which will be part of every college and university reading list and reference collections on the life and writings of James Joyce.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrific resource, and a good read too, May 27, 2004

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P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Years of Bloom (Paperback)

Like many other readers of Joyce, I considered Trieste to be merely "anywhere but Dublin" -- i.e., it was significant to the author only because it was where he began his self-imposed exile from Ireland. In his writings, I felt, Joyce never really left Dublin, and he could as well have been in Mombasa or Ulan Bator for all the effect that his city of residence had on his work. So this book was a revelation to me: although Joyce originally landed in Trieste by happenstance, he quickly grew to feel at home there, and the city provided a cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and culturally rich environment in which his art grew to maturity.

McCourt provides ample and convincing evidence of the degree to which Joyce's experiences in Trieste influenced his most important works, from the Triestine puns in "Finnegans Wake" to the main characters of "Ulysses," and how productive he was as a writer during his years there. What I found especially fascinating were the details McCourt unearthed about the rest of Joyce's life: in his perennially unsuccessful pursuit of financial stability, he was (inter alia) a partner in a cinema, a bank clerk, and a would-be exporter of Irish woolens; his domestic life was continually in uproar (Nora lacked his facility at learning languages, and was marooned at home with a series of babies and, from time to time, Joyce's transplanted siblings); but he was a good English teacher, and, through his private tutoring, he became acquainted with many financially and intellectually influential members of Triestine society. (The influence went both ways: the writer/businessman Ettore Schmidt was on the verge of giving up his literary ambitions when Joyce convinced him not to, and he went on to write several classic novels under his pen name, Italo Svevo.)

This book was originally a doctoral dissertation, and it suffers at times from the graduate-student tendency to include Absolutely Every Detail relevant to one's subject (I sympathize: been there, done that). But, in general, it's readable, clearly written, well organized, and, although the basic structure is chronological, the author gives each chapter enough of a thematic focus to make it more than a mere recitation of dates and events. I found the book entertaining as well as informative, and I feel it's a valuable resource for anyone interested in Joyce or, for that matter, in early 20th century European literary history.

5.0 out of 5 stars Nora, Svevo, Bloom - friend talk about Joyce, December 23, 2009

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Dan U-Sophia "USopher" (Israel) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904-1920 (Hardcover)

The book, besides being very well researched, is a rare opportunity to sit in a Trieste cafe and gossip about Molly, Stephen, James, Frank Budgen and so many more. The books steps out of the Aula Magna and you can actually tastes and smell the drinks!