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James Joyce

Thu, 05 Oct 2000 19:00:00 +0000

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882. Between the years of 1904 and 1907, Joyce wrote "Dubliners," his famous series of short stories. "Ulysses," widely acknowledged as one of the greatest novels ever written, was completed in 1922. In 1923 Joyce began "Finnegans Wake," perhaps the most baffling of his works. With a wonderfully dizzying array of multilingual puns and arcane allusions, Joyce proclaimed it was "a history of the world." Because of the innovative and unusual fragmentary nature of the novel, many of Joyce's supporters abandoned him with the belief that he was wasting his talents.

In December 1940 Joyce was diagnosed with a perforated duodenal ulcer. Although an operation was apparently successful, he weakened, passed into a coma, and died on January 13, just before his fifty-ninth birthday. He was buried in the Fluntern cemetery above Zurich.

Listen to an MP3 audio excerpt from "Finnegans Wake," read by James Joyce, available on the collection "James Joyce Reads" (HarperAudio).

James Joyce

Thu, 05 Oct 2000 19:00:00 +0000

Listen to an MP3 recording of Frank McCourt reading the complete story "Sisters" from "Dubliners," brought to you in cooperation with HarperAudio. This MP3 is available for the first time on the web and only at MP3Lit.com.

James Joyce

Thu, 05 Oct 2000 07:00:00 +0000

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882. Between the years of 1904 and 1907, Joyce wrote "Dubliners," his famous series of short stories.

The fifteen stories that make up the audio release of "Dubliners" roam over a human landscape that stretches from the bleakest of despair to the most blinding of epiphanies. First published in 1914, the stories are as lucid and accessible as they are memorably poignant.

The performers on this collection are: Frank McCourt, Patrick McCabe, Colm Meany, Dearbhla Molloy, Dan O'Herlihy, Malachy McCourt, Donal Donnelly, Brendan Coyle, Jim Norton, Sorcha Cusack, Ciaran Hinds, T.P McKenna, Fionnula Flanagan, Charles Keating and Stephen Rea.

Listen to a recording of Frank McCourt reading the complete story "Sisters," brought to you in cooperation with HarperAudio. This piece is available for the first time on the web and only at Salon Audio.