"A Lipper/Viking book."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 179).

Once Upon a Time -- Jesuits -- Inkpots -- Rebellion -- Orphans -- Revels -- Nora -- Exiles -- Manifesto -- Betrayal -- Buckets -- Obstacles -- Dalliance -- Ulysses -- Sirens -- Miss Beach -- Fame -- Miss Weaver.

James Joyce claims that "A man of genius makes no mistakes." Yet his own life was replete with them. He was the first true revolutionary in twentieth-century fiction. Afflicted with the traditional adolescent inclinations--love, literature, sex, status--Joyce matured into a man obsessed with one thing: home. Yet it was only after he left Dublin for Italy that his vision for an Irish masterpiece took its shape. In self-imposed exile with his wife, Nora, the inspiration for Molly Bloom, and his two children, Joyce began work on the story of one day in the life of a man who, like Homer's hero, travels back to his origins. The development of Ulysses, the scandal surrounding its publication in Paris, and the people Joyce loved and lashed out against are recounted here with rigorous, critical adoration.