While this book showcases the typical traits of Ellmann - being meticulous, having incredibly detailed and thorough research - I couldn't overlook and was indeed annoyed by certain aspects. There are notable gaps in his narrative, as if he has deliberately sidelined particular figures in Joyce's life. At times, it seems as if he is imposing his own agenda onto Joyce's story. When reading this book in conjunction with Beach's "Shakespeare and Company" (which focuses on the publication of Ulysses and other events in the bookstore's history) and Bowker's biography, the overall experience was, at best, disappointing. It makes one question the objectivity and comprehensiveness of Ellmann's work. The gaps and the perceived imposition of his own views detract from what could have been a more accurate and engaging portrayal of Joyce's life and times.

He not only delved into the works of Yeats but also explored those of Wilde, to boot!

His literary journey was a remarkable one as he immersed himself in the profound and diverse worlds created by these two great literary figures. Yeats' poetry, with its rich imagery and complex themes, offered him a deep well of inspiration. He would spend hours poring over the lines, dissecting the meanings and trying to understand the poet's unique perspective.

Similarly, Wilde's witty and satirical plays and stories captivated him. The sharp dialogue and the clever social commentary in Wilde's works appealed to his sense of humor and his interest in human nature. By studying both Yeats and Wilde, he was able to gain a broader understanding of the literary landscape and the different ways in which writers could express themselves.

His exploration of their works not only enhanced his own literary knowledge but also influenced his own writing style. He incorporated elements of Yeats' lyricism and Wilde's wit into his own compositions, creating a unique and engaging body of work.

The best literary biography ever written (maybe the best biography, period).

This remarkable work is truly a gem in the world of literature. It offers an in-depth and captivating exploration into the life and works of a literary giant.

For anyone who cares about modern literature and the nature of genius, this biography is essential reading.

It delves deep into the mind and creative process of the author, revealing the inspirations, struggles, and triumphs that shaped their body of work.

Through vivid descriptions and meticulous research, the biographer brings the subject to life, allowing readers to gain a profound understanding of their literary achievements and the impact they had on the literary landscape.

Whether you are a literature enthusiast, a student, or simply someone interested in the lives of great minds, this biography is sure to captivate and inspire you.

It is a must-read for anyone seeking to explore the fascinating world of modern literature and the extraordinary individuals who have contributed to its rich tapestry.

Hearing with Audible the 37 hours of James Joyce's Biography written by Richard Ellmann was truly an eye-opening experience. It delved into the remarkable life of Joyce, starting from his youth in Ireland and following his journey through adulthood in Trieste, Paris, and Zurich. The author, using various documents like letters, vividly presented the creation and progress of Joyce's renowned works such as Dubliners, The Portrait, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. Each of these books had their chapters first showcased in magazines before being published in their entirety.

As a schoolboy in Ireland, Joyce read the Odyssey, which would later serve as the leitmotiv of his Ulysses, published in Paris in 1921. During his college years, he studied Italian by reading Dante's Divine Comedy. While living in Trieste, he made new friends and was introduced to Freudian ideas, initially perceiving their similarity to Vico's notion of History. Throughout his life, Joyce remained committed to writing poetry, and Chamber Music stands as a testament to his perseverance.

When World War I forced Joyce's family to relocate to Zurich, the polyglot seized the opportunity to enhance his German. After the war, living in Paris allowed him to take short trips to Amsterdam and Bretagne, where he keenly listened to the way people spoke, and this influenced the making of his final book, Finnegans Wake. Vico's ideas remained integral to the architectural project of this book. For me, having read many of Proust's books, a great moment in the biography was Ellmann's account of the meeting between Joyce and Marcel Proust, just one year before the French author's passing.

I will finish the final portion when (if) I ever get to FW.

This statement implies a sense of uncertainty and anticipation. It seems that there is a specific task or goal that the person is referring to, and they are waiting for a particular event or condition, which is getting to FW, in order to complete the final part.

Maybe FW represents a milestone, a specific location, or a certain state of progress. Without knowing more details, it's difficult to say exactly what it means. However, the use of "if" also indicates that there is some doubt or possibility that the person may not actually reach FW.

This could be due to various reasons such as unforeseen circumstances, obstacles, or simply a lack of opportunity. Nevertheless, the person remains committed to finishing the final portion once they do get to FW, which shows determination and a sense of purpose.

There are likely far more details and information about Joyce here than one could ever need. However, after finishing Dubliners, Portrait, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake, it's nice to spend more time with the man. Ellmann also enjoys spending time with him, always being sympathetic and witty, but never reverent or panegyric.

The overall story seems to be that the seeds of Joyce's work grew from his reading of Aquinas' theory of beauty in his youth, the simple formula that “those things are beautiful the apprehension of which pleases”. The epiphanies that would later become Dubliners are rooted in this, as are the autobiographic mirrors of Stephen Hero and Portrait. Overall, Joyce's life, with its erratic, disordered, and unstable lifestyle, was about trying, against all odds, to become an artist, and his art was, in turn, about this life of his. With the simple maxim urging him to compose beautiful works, Joyce's life and art were actually a Möbius strip without origin, beginning, or end.
We expect great artists, whose works dazzle and befuddle us with their apparent depths, to be likewise men and women of great depth. However, this expectation is almost universally disappointed. There are so many possibilities and suggested possibilities in art, especially good art, that they always transcend what a single person is capable of. Traversing through hundreds of pages of detailed biography of Joyce won't provide the key to understanding his uniquely opaque work, and neither will knowledge of his work help us understand Joyce the man. But that is because there is not really anything to "get into", there is no actual depth, only myriads of intersections and chance meetings on the soundboards of artistic production, amplified and made explicit, ricocheting back to one's own life. What I long for in art is to really get into the source, the Ursprung, of everything. And the ultimate confirmation of such total penetration would be the correlative personal depth of the author, following Dufrenne's sentence that “depth [of aesthetic object] is correlative with ours”. And yet, all great art I know, and Joyce's really towers above everything in literature for me, just mobilizes myriad particles and chases them over vast surfaces. Like Schubert accessing the world through poetry, Joyce read a lot and then wrote something himself, and that was his life. There is no source. No source in “Erlebnis”, so to speak. But can one stop trying to find it anyway?
The best "character" in this biography is Nora, because she couldn't be bothered with reading his books. She, so it appears (and so it appeared to Joyce, which is why he loved and adored her), saw through it all. Ulysses takes place on 16 June, 1904 in Dublin, the day he met Nora for the first time, and includes Joyce's younger self alter-ego in Stephen and his mature self alter-ego in Bloom. That's really the thing you would love your special one to read, but she really couldn't have been bothered with it. If there's some deep truth to anything in Joyce's life or writings, it's probably this.
Also, when Jung, who otherwise didn't like Joyce very much (as Joyce's friends said to him, "Well, translate your name into German and you'll see why"), congratulated Joyce for getting into the woman psyche in Molly's monologue, Nora, taking a no-nonsense approach to this male back-patting, quipped that, actually “he knows nothing at all about women”. One doubts Jung would have fared much better.
Anyway, none of these insights are accessible to us, so we must take a circumvent road through his books and read Joyce. And don't get me wrong, it's often a pleasure. For example, Ellmann can't help but quote the final pages of Anna Livia's soliloquy at length, and it's one of the most beautiful things ever written. But reading FW took me eight months, and who has that kind of time? Of course, Joyce was unapologetic: “The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works”.
So, yeah, there's no alternative to spending more time with the man. With this biography, you'll do precisely that. Thankfully, it's often a fun time. I'll write down my favorite "sketch":

Once or twice he dictated a bit of Finnegans Wake to Beckett, though dictation did not work very well for him. In the middle of one such session, there was a knock on the door which Beckett didn't hear. Joyce said, ‘Come in,’ and Beckett wrote it down. Afterwards he read back what he had written, and Joyce said, ‘What's that “Come in”?’ ‘Yes, you said that,’ said Beckett. Joyce thought for a moment, then said, ‘Let it stand.’ He was quite willing to accept coincidence as his collaborator. Beckett was fascinated and thwarted by Joyce's singular method.

What more could you want to know?

This is a question that often lingers in our minds when we are in the process of learning or exploring something new. There are countless aspects and details that we might be curious about. For example, when studying a particular subject, we may wonder about its historical background, its applications in real life, or the latest research findings related to it.

In a conversation, we might want to know more about the other person's experiences, opinions, or future plans.

Even in our daily lives, we could be interested in learning more about a new hobby, a place we have never been to, or a particular product.

The pursuit of knowledge is endless, and there is always more to discover and understand. By asking questions and seeking answers, we can expand our horizons and gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. So, the next time you find yourself asking "What more could you want to know?", embrace the opportunity to learn and explore.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

It is truly a remarkable piece of scholarship. Ellman has an in-depth understanding of Joyce and his fictional works.

However, it has a significant drawback in that it is overly long. It is充斥着irrelevant and meaningless details. My pet peeve is that many lousy poems that Joyce casually composed to amuse his friends are reprinted in their entirety. What's more, one of them is even translated into several languages, including Norwegian. I firmly believe that Joyce would have been extremely embarrassed.

Just as I mentioned to my wife moments ago, we should be grateful that Joyce passed away in his late 50s. If he had lived until his 80s, this book would likely be a whopping 2000 pages long.

This is a brilliantly written, well-researched, and comprehensive biography.

It provides a wealth of insights into Joyce's motives for writing his books, especially his thoughts during the creation of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, as well as details about his life.

In my view, a good literary biography should inspire the reader to revisit the writer's works. Richard Ellmann's masterful volume accomplishes precisely this for me.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Joyce or literary biographies in general. It offers a deep and engaging exploration of Joyce's life and work, making it a valuable addition to any bookshelf.

The author's meticulous research and engaging writing style bring Joyce's world to life, allowing the reader to gain a better understanding of his creative process and the context in which his works were produced.

Overall, this biography is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of Joyce's literary contributions.

Richard Ellmann's biography of James Joyce has elicited a wide range of responses from important people. Bill W.”T.”V. Faulman lauds Ellmann for achieving what he aimed for in his Dreams 7.0 series. However, opinions are divided. S. Bucket finds it too long, while Joseph Frank thinks it's too short. Odysseus claims Ellmann didn't do enough to dispel the myth about him. Molly and S. Dedalus express their approval, with Molly exclaiming “Yes! Ellmann, Yes!” and S. Dedalus using the word “Ineluctable!”. Nora can't wait for the second volume, and the NYT calls it “The very best writing about the very best.” Noam offers a different perspective, seeing a story of imperialism, racism, and more. Greg and Giorgio are excited to be in it, while Rudy has nothing to say. Beeves and Butts find humor in a specific phrase. D.T.’s to the Max believes it's the Joyce biography they've been waiting for since Gorman's inadequate one. The anonymous person suggests adding more cowbell. HCE gives it a positive review, but Mark “Samuel Clemens” Twain thinks his own work is better. Lucia and James Joyce have their own comments, and Dante has a special place prepared. Milton compares his Lucifer=Satan to Joyce's. Švejk begs to report, and J. Morton warns that reading Ellmann's biography, like reading Finnegans Wake, may make Joyceans unendurable. Thunder calls it one of the best biographies about a human, and Four Old Men praise Ellmann. However, there are also negative reviews. An unidentified gr’r complains about too many typos, and Hugh Kenner dismisses it as drivel. Eric thinks Hugh Kenner does it better, and Franzen blames Joyce for ruining fiction and Ellmann for ruining biography. Coover makes a rather scandalous claim about Joyce, and Lee K. offers a cryptic message. Fion You Allah provides a poem, and Larry Stars has a rather long and perhaps less than positive opinion. Alfred Hitchcock weighs in with his view on puns, and Earwigger van Beethoven compares it to his own ode to Joyce. Nathan “N.R.” Gaddis is enthralled and couldn't put it down.

After delving into this, returning to the works of James Joyce becomes an incredibly more rewarding and comprehensible experience. I made an attempt to read "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" a long time ago, and I was utterly baffled. However, having gained an understanding of the background, piecing together all the elements has become just about achievable. There is still an abundance that I don't understand regarding Joyce's writing. But now, my curiosity has been piqued, and I have an intense desire to uncover more. I am eager to explore the depths of his literary genius and try to make sense of the complex and intricate world he has created. I believe that with further study and analysis, I will be able to gain a deeper appreciation for his works and perhaps even unlock some of the mysteries that still elude me.

A portrait of the artist as a voluntary exile.

Sadly, this remains a prominent theme in Ireland, over a hundred years since Joyce left his native Dublin.

James Joyce was a shrewd, arrogant, and undeniably talented man. I was both perturbed and fascinated by the delicate balance he managed to strike between his occasional teaching jobs and his writing.

Moreover, his lifelong success in very narrowly avoiding insolvency was truly remarkable.

There are fascinating crossovers with many prominent literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both in Dublin and Paris.

Joyce's life and work offer a rich tapestry of experiences and interactions.

For the most part, it makes for a very entertaining read.

However, as a fellow visually impaired person, I underestimated how tough it would be to learn about his many painful, failed eye surgeries.

The rapid deterioration of his vision that inevitably followed was a heart-wrenching aspect of his story.

Despite these hardships, Joyce's literary contributions continue to be celebrated and studied to this day.