Please bear in mind that the aim of this module is to reach a good estimate of the method and significance of Joyce's story “The Dead” and not to attempt a wider study of his achievement as an artist. There will be time for that later in the University of Ulster programme for a BA Hons (minor) degree in Irish literature.
  For fuller details, see the pages on James Joyce in the RICORSO website, accessing it from the front page [link] and making use of your username/password: eng105/student.

James Augustine Joyce [JAJ] b. 6.00 a.m., 2 Feb. (Candlemas), 41 Brighton Square West, Rathgar, Dublin, and bapt. in Catholic religion; descended from Cork property-owners on his father's side (John Stanislaus Joyce; JSJ) and from the family of Daniel O'Connell on his mother's (May Goulding);

JSJ a rates-collector attached to Dublin Corporation, moves to Joyce 1 Martello Tce., Bray, a good address in a fashionable new suburb at easy train-ride distance from Dublin city; as eldest son, Joyce enjoys advantages of a class upper-middle childhood;

JAJ enters Clongowes Wood, a boarding-school run by the Jesuit Fathers for the better-off Catholic boys in Ireland; distinguishes himself as a gifted student and faces down Fr James Daly (Dolan in A Portrait ) over broken glasses;

JAJ writes “Et Tu Healy” following the death of Parnell (7 Oct. 1891), a poem expressing strong attachment to the doomed Irish Home Rule leader who died after being rejected by the Irish clergy in the wake of his affair with Kitty O'Shea;

Joyces move to “Leoville” at Carysfort Ave., Blackrock; JAJ comes home from school and does not return in the new term, his father having fallen under censure in his working life; Christmas dinner events in A Portrait probably in this period (or the year before);

JSJ loses post in Corporation with pension; family moves to at 14 Fitzgibbon St. in the Dublin's 'inner city'; JAJ briefly attends Christian Brothers' School at N. Richmond St. before being taken free of charge by Jesuits at Belvedere College.

JAJ wins £20 prize in Intermediate Examinations, summer 1894, reading Charles Lamb's The Adventures of Ulysses as part of Syllabus; Joyce family moves to Millbourne Avenue, Drumcondra; JSJ sells off remaining property in Cork, bringing JAJ with him;

JAJ Intermediate Prize of £20 for three years; offered and refuses a place with Dominicans nr. Dublin; develops interest in romantic poetry of Lord Byron and novels of Dumas; elected to Sodality of Blessed Virgin at Belvedere; JAJ prevents his father's violent attack on his mother;

Joyces moves to 13 N. Richmond St., where JAJ has 'spanking match' with the slavey (the last maid the family will have); moves to 29 Windsor Ave., Fairview later in the year; JAJ hears ‘hellfire' sermon at Belvedere and is appt. Prefect of Sodality of Mary;

JAJ grows friendly with the Sheehy well-off family at Belvedere Place and acts in school play; takes a prize of £30 for 2 yrs. in state examinations and graduates from school; Sunday evening visits to home of David Sheehy and family, 2 Belvedere Place;

JAJ has sex with prostitute, confessing afterwards in Carmelite Church; commences Matriculation for Royal University (UCD); reads authors incl. Meredith and Hardy and meets realistic works of Henrik Ibsen in 'moment of radiant simultaneity';

JAJ attends W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen and refuses to join protest; commences reading in the National Library; writes “Ecce Homo”, a review of Munkacsy's painting; makes contact with the Fortnightly Review ; family moves to 13 Richmond Ave., Fairview, sharing the house with the Hughes;

JAJ delivers “Drama and Life” (10 Jan.), lecture at L&H in UCD; “Ibsen's New Drama”, his review of When We Dead Awaken appears in Fortnightly Review (1 April 1900); visits London with his father; receives message of thanks from Ibsen through Wm. Archer; travels to Mullingar with JSJ;

JAJ learns Norwegian and writes to Ibsen (March 1901); translates Hauptmann's Vor Sonnenaufgang [ Before Sunrise ]; publishes “The Day of the Rabblement” (14 Oct. 1901) charging the Irish Literary Theatre with provincialism; writes the first of his ‘epiphanies', using an intensely realist technique;

JAJ writes Dream Stuff , a verse drama, and translates Hauptmann's Michael Kramer ; gives paper on Mangan at L. & H. (1 Feb. 1902); meets George Russell and Yeats; reads at Marsh's Library; travels to Paris with unviable plan of studying medicine there; returns Christmas;

JAJ returns to Paris; reads Aristotle in Bibliothèque Ste. Génèvieve; begins aesthetic journal (“Paris Notebook”); meets J. M. Synge and criticises Riders to the Sea; writes book-reviews for Daily Express ; received telegram: “Mother dying come home father”, 13 April; death of May Joyce, 13 Aug.;

JAJ begins to ‘drink riotously' and freqents brothels; writes “Portrait Essay” (7 January 1904); makes collection of poems ( Chamber Music ); contributes 3 stories to Irish Homestead [later pub. in Dubliners ]; stays with Gogarty at Sandycove Martello; meets Nora Barnacle, of Galway, and soon leaves Ireland with her, Nov.; travels to Paris and Trieste in search of teaching job;

JAJ finds English teaching post in Pola (Yugoslavia); writes lengthy autobiography ( Stephen Hero ); prints copies of “The Holy Office”, spurning Irish writers; Giorgio, a son, born July; further stories sent home and refused; JAJ sends 12 “Dubliners ” stories to London publisher Grant Richards (3 Dec. 1905);

Richards agrees to publish Dubliners, 7 Feb.; Richards' printer refuses to print word ‘ bloody ' (in “Two Gallants”) causing Richards to repudiate contract; JAJ offers Chamber Music to Elkin Mathews; forced takes bank-job in Rome, Aug.; quits bank and turns to teaching, Nov.; plans story about “Odyssey” based on a Mr Hunter in Dublin;

Mathews accepts Chamber Music , Jan.; Dubliners rejected by several publishers; Joyces return from Rome, March; JAJ writes articles on Ireland for Piccola della Serra (Trieste); Lucia, a daughter, born July, in charity ward at Trieste; JAJ suffers fever and completes “The Dead” during convalescing (6 Sept); Mathews refuses Dubliners ; JAJ brings Stanislaus to Trieste, 1907;

Maunsel & Co. show interest in Dubliners , Feb.; JAJ revised Stephen Hero in 5 chapters as A Portrait ; briefly renounces drink for Nora, Feb.; translates Synge's Riders to the Sea ; Nora suffers miscarriage, without regret; JAJ contemplates singing career and takes lessons (unpaid); plans to import Irish tweed;

JAJ visits Dublin and signs contract for Dubliners with Maunsel, Aug.; visits Galway with Giorgio; former friend Cosgrave claims he had ‘had' Nora in 1904, causing JAJ a wild attack of jealousy; JAJ returns to Trieste with his sister Eva, Sept.; engages with Triestino businessmen to open Dublin's first cinema, Oct.; writes erotic letters to Nora; the “Volta” opens, Dec.;

JAJ returns to Trieste with sister Eileen, Jan.; suffers serious damage to eye while lying out in drinking bout; “Volta” cinema closes and is sold at loss, July; Stanislaus moves out of Joyce apartment after quarrel over money; Maunsels agree date of publication for Dubliners , Dec.;

Maunsels renew objections to Dubliners ; JAJ purportedly throws Portrait manuscript in fire (rescued by Nora); Eva becomes homesick and returns to Dublin, July; JAJ writes to Sinn Féin and Northern Whig exposing Mausels' dealings, Aug-Sept.; encourages Nora to accept attentions of Roberto Preziosa;

JAJ gives lectures on “Realism and Idealism” in Defoe and Blake at Università; sits teachers' exam in Padua and scores highly; Dublin BA degree not recognised; sends Nora to Dublin and follows after; argues for Dubliners with Maunsel and gets 1 set of galleys ‘by a ruse'; leaves Dublin, Sept.;

JAJ publishes “Gas from a Burner”; Dubliners rejected again by Elkin Mathews, April; JAJ has mild affair with Amalia Popper and writes Giacomo Joyce ; Yeats sends poem by JAJ to Ezra Pound (“I hear an army charging upon the land” - printed in Des Imagistes , 1914); Pound enquires about other writings;

Grant Richards responds to JAJ's letter about Dubliners and seeks to renew contract, Jan.; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man serialised in The Egoist (2 Feb. 1914-1 Aug. 1914); Richards publishes Dubliners as book, 15 June 1914; JAJ commences work on Ulysses March 1, 1914;

JAJ untouched by Italian govt. at outbreak of war; Joyces receive Swiss visas on undertaking to remain ‘non-combatant'; Joyces enter Switzerland, Zurich, June; JAJ receives support from Royal Literary Fund, July 1915; A Portrait rejected by Martin Secker (London); Eileen marries Frantisek Schaurek, bank-clerk;

Joyces settle in Zurich, living chiefly at 73 Seefeldstrasse; JAJ receives weekly support from Society of Authors at Pound's suggestion; Exiles rejected by The Stage Society, July; A Portrait published by Ben Huebsch in New York, 30 Dec. 1916;

A Portrait published by The Egoist Press (London), 12 Jan. 1917; JAJ receives £50 quarterly support from ‘anon. admirer' (the first of many gifts from Harriest Shaw Weaver); JAJ undergoes first of 10 eye operations Aug. 1917;

JAJ receives 1,000 francs a month from Edith Rockefeller MacCormick; Ulysses appears serially in The Little Review (March 1918-Dec. 1920); JAJ forms English Players with Claud Sykes and produces JAJ Importance of Being Earnest ; engages in law suit British Consul employee;

JAJ engages in flirtation with Marthe Fleishmann, mistress of Zurich businessman; receives £5,000 capital form Miss Weaver; Exiles produced as Verbannte in Munich, Aug.; funds from Mrs McCormick stopped; JAJ and family return to Trieste, 1919;

Joyces briefly settles back in Trieste (staying with Eileen and her husband Frantisek Schaureks); meets Pound at Sirmione and moves to Paris on his 's suggestion, July; meets Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare & Co; Beach undertakes to publish Ulysses ; JAJ gains support of leading French critic Valèry Larbaud;

Little Review ceases printing Ulysses after obscenity charge is upheld in New York court, Feb.; JAJ meets Arthur Power, who keeps record of his conversation, and Stuart Gilbert, who assists prepares book on Ulysses ; Larbaud identifies ‘ monologue intèrieur' in public lecture, 7 Dec. 1921;

Ulysses published in Paris by Shakespeare & Co. Edition, 2 Feb. 1922; Nora visits Galway against JAJ's wishes and comes under fire in Irish Civil War, April; JAJ suffers acute iritis; Joyces travel to London, meeting Miss Weaver; has eyes drained by leaches, Nov.;

JAJ begins “Work in Progress” [later Finnegans Wake ] with “King Roderick O'Conor” episode, March; has all his teeth removed, April; visits London and Bognor Regis; receives further £12,000 capital from Miss Weaver;

JAJ indignant at John Quinn's sale of Ulysses MS to . W. B. Rosenbach, for £2,000; selection of Ulysses in French appears in Commerce (Summer 1924); JAJ undergoes further eye operations; JAJ commissions Patrick Tuohy paints portrait of JAJ, May 1924,Visits Brittany;

Fragments of “Work in Progress” appears in Criterion (July 1925) and Navire d'Argent (July, Oct.); Joyces travel to Normandy; Joyces settle in to 2 Square Robiac; Giorgio forms relationship with Helen Kastor Fleischmann, a fashionable American 20 years older than himself;

Stanislaus visits Paris and dismisses “Work in Progress”; Joyces travel to Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, and visits Waterloo; Joyce organises campaign against Samuel Roth, who pirated Ulysses in America; Pound writes to JAJ disparaging “Work in Progress” as ‘circumambient peripherisation', Nov.;

“Work in Progress” espoused by Eugene Jolas, as principal example of ‘revolution of the word' and printed in transition (April-Nov. 1927 & Nov. 1929); Pomes Penyeach issued by Shakespeare & Co.; JAJ attacked by Wyndham in Time and Western Man ;

JAJ suffers inflammation of the intestine; receives injections of arsenic and phosphorus in his eyes; Stanislaus m. Nellie Lichtensteiger, Aug.; Joyces travel to Salzburg; Anna Livia Plurabelle published in New York (Oct.); JAJ suggests the James Stephens finishes “Work in Progress” if he goes blind;

Nora undergoes hysterectomy; Ulysses published in French (Feb.); JAJ undergoes eye operations; Tales Told of Shem and Shaun published by Black Sun Press (Aug.); JAJ records “Anna Livia Plurabelle” for gramaphone in London; Exagmination (essays on “Work in Progress”) published;

JAJ conducts campaign for John O'Sullivan, Irish tenor; JAJ vetoes Carl Jung's introduction to German trans. of Ulysses ; JAJ makes friends with Paul Léon; Herbert Gorman begins biography of JAJ; Sylvia Beach surrenders world rights in Ulysses at JAJ's insistence;

Joyces establish residence in London for marriage in Kensington Registry Office (‘testimentary reasons'); Faber issues Haveth Childers Everywhere; death of JSJ; Lucia shows signs of mental illness; Joyces visit Wales;

Lucia becomes engaged to Alex Ponisovsky, falls into catatonic state, and is diagnosed ‘hebephrenic'; Faber issues Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (Dec.); JAJ refuses Yeats's invitation to join Irish Academy of Letters, Oct.; JAJ buys Lucia fur-coat for 4,000 frs as therapy;

JAJ's right right eye now found to be calcified, with atrophied retina; Lucia examined by pschiatrist at Zurich Mental Asylum and placed in Nyon nursing home, July; Max L. Ernst successfully challenges American ban on Ulysses in US District Court, Dec.;

America edition of Ulysses published (Feb.), selling 33,000 copies in 2 months; Lucia physically attacks her month and is returned to nursing home; sets room on fire, sent to Asylum and then to nursing-home where Carl Kung holds position; George travels to America to pursue singing career;

Lucia is place in care of Miss Weaver in London, then taken Bray in Ireland with Eileen; runs away; placed in Co. Dublin nursing-home; brought back to London and then to Paris by Maria Jolas; regarded as ‘dangerous' placed in Asylum and moved to maison de santé, remaining in care for the rest of her life;

A Chaucer ABC with drawings by Lucia published, July; Joyces visit Calvados, Copenhagen, Bonn and Zurich; Ulysses published by John Lane in London (Bodley Head Edn. Oct. 1936); Stanislaus officially expelled from Trieste; JAJ and Stanislaus meet in Zurich;

JAJ works Italian trans. of Anna Livia Plurabelle with on Nino Frank; JAJ invited to PEN Club dinner as guest of honour and addresses meeting on author's rights, June; makes weekly visits to Lucia; George and Helen Fleischmann travel to America, Dec.-April;

JAJ composed last sections of Finnegans Wake with great difficulty due to eye-sight; JAJ involved with arrangements to evacuation Lucia in case of war (deferred by Munich Agreement, 30 Sept.); Helen Joyce has nervous breakdown presaging collapse of her marriage to George;

JAJ sents wreathe to funeral of Yeats; F innegans Wake published (2 Feb. 1939); JAJ travels to Zurich for eye-treatment and then to Normandy where Lucia is being evacuated; Stephen Joyce sent to Maria Jolas's school at St Gérand-le-Puy nr. Vichy, and joined by the Joyces at Christmas;

Joyces, Léons, Beckett and others gather at St Gérand-le-Puy as Paris falls (May 1940); Joyces take rooms in hotels at St. Gérand and Vichy before gaining exit visas to Switzerland with great difficulty and much international support; Joyce, Nora, George & Stephen reach Zurich by train, 15 Dec. 1940;

JAJ suffers extreme attack of abdominal pain and removed to Red Cross Hospital, 10 Jan.; operated on for duodenal ulcer, 12 Jan.; wakes but loses strength, asking for wife and son before slipping into coma; and dies 2.15 a.m. 13 Jan.; buried at Fluntern Cemetery, Zurich.