James Joyce Unplugged

This book introduces James Joyce in a biographical way through his personal writings and his published work. It identifies him as an early European and latterly as an Irish Nationalist and a follower of Arthur Griffith's Sinn Fein. As an exile Joyce kept in touch with Ireland through Griffith's newspapers, the United Irishman and Sinn Fein. Joyce wrote that during his last visit to Ireland as his attempts to have 'Dubliners' published, the only person who was kind to him was Arthur Griffith. Each man was trying to liberate Ireland through his own medium. This was achieved in 1922 as Griffith became President of an independent Irish Parliament and Ulysses was published that same year, with Griffith featuring throughout the novel.Joyce's works are extraordinarily autobiographical, even when the incidents reflect badly on himself. He spares no one. As success eventually came, through the aegis of Ezra Pound and Sylvia Beach etc Patrons contributed generously to afford him a lavish lifestyle. He was no suffering 'Jesus' , he wanted success now.! Like his mentor WB Yeats Joyce began to feel that his genius removed him from the ordinary social mores of the proletariat. As Sylvia Beach said at the opening at the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove Dublin in 1962, Joyce gave as much grief as he believed he was the recipient of. Adrienne Monnier responded to Andre Gide's opinion that Joyce wrote without an eye on success or money that on the contrary he invented some Dublingrad to which he dedicated his monetary success, expecting all to contribute.