James Joyce (1882-1941) is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. As a young man he rejected his country and its religion, but went on to carefully recreate the Dublin of his youth in his fiction. Ulysses was banned in Britain and the United States, but has since been recognised as a masterpiece that revolutionized the modern novel. Despite failing eyesight and domestic worries, his last book, Finnegans Wake, is a celebration of the great human comedy in which each of us has a part.