James Joyce was born as James Augustine Aloysius Joyce on February 2, 1832. He was known for his style of writing as he used the stream of consciousness method, which is a method used by writers who keep writing based on the way their thoughts move. Joyce was anything but conventional and this would explain why publishers of his time rejected his work.

Joyce's best known novels are Ulysses and Dubliners, where he describes the dull and boring life of people living in Dublin. The novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-biographical novel that highlights the problems a boy faces who is growing up in an already overcrowded family, which is socially on a downward move. The novel beautifully captures the conflict the young man faces about his artistic talents knowing that there is no future for his talents.

Only if you are ready to look beyond the words, will you be able to truly enjoy the novels written by Joyce. He uses symbolism quite often in his work, and many find it hard to understand it. This is one of the reasons why he never became a popular literary writer.

He hated living in Ireland, but ironically most of his novels are based in Ireland. As the age of 22, Joyce moved to France to take up journalism, teaching and others jobs to make ends meet. When the First World War started, Joyce moved out of France and found his way to Zurich, where he started writing Ulysses. The book was published in 1933. After that, he wrote Finnegan's Wake, which he had started writing while living in France. However, by then, he started suffering from glaucoma.

Joyce has always been an enigma to literary experts. Some extol his writing skills, while others find his works deplorable. However, once cannot deny the fact that James Joyce was instrumental in changing the conventional way of writing. He has left his mark on literature, and offered us insights into the human mind and how it works under different circumstances.

Besides novels, Joyce has also written poems like Chamber Music and Pmes Penyeach. In addition, he wrote a play entitled Exiles.