“Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.”

Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic

James Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He helped shape modernism and is widely regarded as a major writer of the 20th century. He is best known for Ulysses, a novel that reworks episodes from Homer’s Odyssey through a range of literary styles, especially stream of consciousness. Other well-known works include Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Finnegans Wake. He also wrote two books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism.