A revealing new biography--the first in more than fifty years--of one of the twentieth-century's towering literary figures -- James Joyce, author of "Ulysses."

Gordon Bowker draws on material recently come to light and reconsiders the two signal works produced about Joyce's life--Herbert Gorman's authorized biography of 1939 and Richard Ellman's tome of 1959. By binding together more intimately than has ever before been attempted the life and work of this singular artist, Gordon Bowker here gives us a masterful, fresh, eminently readable contribution to our understanding, both of Joyce's personality and of the monumental opus he created. --from publisher description

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Past imperfect, 1800-1882 The dawn of consciousness, 1882-1888 Willingly to school, 1888-1893 Belvedere: in the arms of the Jesuits, 1893-1898 Cultivating `the enigma of a manner', 1898-1899 Making a reputation, 1900-1902 An uncertain future, 1902 `Sinister genius', 1902-1903 A death in the family, 1903-1904 Nora, 1904 Birds of passage, 1904-1905 At a crossroads, 1905-1906 The conception of Ulysses, 1906-1907 Going freelance in Trieste, 1907-1909 The exile's return, 1909-1910 Portrait of the artist in retrospect, 1910-1912 A portrait completed; a masterpiece begun, 1912-15 The exile in exile, 1915-1917

The coming forth by day of Leopold Bloom, 1917-1918 Earthly trials, 1918 Settling scores and moving on, 1918-1920 Ulysses: inside the dismal labyrinth, 1920-1921 An eventful labour, 1921-1922 Ulysses: birth and afterbirth, 1922-1924 A conspiracy of concealment, 1924-1926 Fending off the pirates and envisioning the invisible, 1927-1928 A French connection, 1929 `Always something new on the Robiac front', 1930 A very English wedding, 1931 Death, birth and madness, 1932-1933 Ulysses unbound, 1934-1936 The ABC of blind love and ruination, 1936-1938 A puzzle for a puzzled world, 1939 `Going downhill fast', 1940 Death in exile, 1940.