A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (8 page)

1882

(2 Feb.) Born James Augustine Joyce, eldest surviving son of John Stanislaus Joyce (‘John’), a Collector of Rates, and Mary Jane (‘May’) Joyce née Murray, at 41 Brighton Square West, Rathgar, Dublin. (May) Phoenix Park murders.

1884

First of many family moves, to 23 Castlewood Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin. (17 Dec.) John Stanislaus Joyce (‘Stanislaus’) born.

1886

Gladstone’s Home Rule bill defeated.

1887

Family (now four children: three boys, one girl) moves to 1 Martello Terrace, Bray, south of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire). JJ’s uncle, William O’Connell, moves in with family, as does Mrs ‘Dante’ Hearn Conway, who is to act as a governess.

1888

(1 Sept.) JJ enrols at Clongowes Wood College, near Sallins, County Kildare, a Jesuit boys’ school.

1889

After his first communion, JJ becomes altar boy. (At his later confirmation, also at Clongowes, JJ takes ‘Aloysius’ as his saint’s name.) Given four strikes on the back of the hand with a pandybat for use of ‘vulgar language’. (24 Dec.) Captain O’Shea files for divorce from Katherine (‘Kitty’) O’Shea on grounds of her adultery with Charles Stewart Parnell, MP, leader of the Irish Home Rule Party.

1890

Parnell ousted as leader of Home Rule Party.

1891

(June) JJ removed from Clongowes as family finances fade. John Joyce loses job as Rates Collector (pensioned off at age of 42). (6 Oct.) Parnell dies. JJ writes ‘Et Tu, Healy’, identifying Tim Healy, Parnell’s lieutenant, with Brutus and indicting Ireland’s rejection of Parnell as treachery.

1892

Family (now eight children: four boys, four girls) move to Blackrock, then into central Dublin.

1893

Children sent to the Christian Brothers School on North Richmond Street. (6 Apr.) JJ and his brothers enter Belvedere College, Jesuit boys’ day-school, fees having been waived. Last Joyce child born (family now four boys, six girls). Gaelic League founded.

1894

JJ travels to Cork with John Joyce, who is disposing of the last of the family’s Cork properties. Family moves to Drumcondra. JJ wins first of many Exhibitions for excellence in state examinations. (Summer) Trip to Glasgow with John Joyce. Family moves again, to North Richmond Street. JJ reads Lamb’s
Adventures of Ulysses
and writes theme on Ulysses as ‘My Favourite Hero’.

1895

JJ enters the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1896

JJ chosen prefect of the Sodality, attends retreat, later claims to have begun his ‘sexual life’ in this, his fourteenth year.

1897

JJ wins prize for best English composition in Ireland for his age group.

1898

JJ begins to read Ibsen, attends and reviews plays. Leaves Belvedere. (Sept.) Enters Royal University (now University College, Dublin). Family continues to move from house to house.

1899

(8 May) JJ attends première of Yeats’s
The Countess Cathleen
, refuses to sign students’ letter of protest to the
Freeman’s Journal
against the play.

1900

(20 Jan.) JJ delivers paper ‘Drama and Life’ before the university Literary and Historical Society, defending the attention paid to mundane life in contemporary drama (especially Ibsen’s); outraged protest from students. (1 Apr.) JJ’s review of Ibsen’s
When We Dead Awaken
, ‘Ibsen’s New Drama’, published in
Fortnightly Review
. Ibsen responds with pleasure. JJ visits London, attends Music Hall, writes prose and verse plays, poems, begins to keep ‘epiphany’ notebook.

1901

JJ writes ‘The Day of the Rabblement’, an attack on the Irish Literary Theatre and its narrow nationalism, and publishes it privately in a pamphlet with Francis Skeffington’s essay arguing for equality for women.

1902

(1 Feb.) JJ delivers paper to Literary and Historical Society praising the Irish poet James Clarence Mangan and advocating literature as ‘the continual affirmation of the spirit’. (Mar.) JJ’s brother George dies. JJ leaves university and registers for the Royal University Medical School. (Oct.) Meets Yeats and, later, Lady Gregory. Leaves Medical School and (1 Dec.) departs for Paris, ostensibly to study medicine. Passes through London where Yeats introduces him to Arthur Symons. Reviews books for Dublin
Daily Express
. (23 Dec.) Returns to Dublin for Christmas.

1903

JJ meets Oliver St John Gogarty. (17 Jan.) Returns to Paris by way of London. Giving up on medical school, spends days in Bibliothèque Nationale, nights in Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. (Mar.) Meets Synge. (11 Apr.) Returns to Dublin due to mother’s illness; she dies (13 Aug.). JJ continues to write reviews.

1904

JJ writes essay ‘A Portrait of the Artist’, first seeds of later novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
. Begins writing stories, which will become
Dubliners
, and publishes three in the
Irish Homestead
. Begins work on
Stephen Hero
. Writes and publishes poems which will be collected later as
Chamber Music
. Leaves the family home, takes rooms in Dublin, teaches at Clifton School, Dalkey. Writes ‘The Holy Office’, a satirical poem about the contemporary Dublin literary scene. (10 June) Meets Nora Barnacle and on 16 June first goes out with her. Joins Gogarty (for one week) in the Martello Tower, Sandycove. (8 Oct.) JJ and Nora leave Dublin together for the Continent, first to Zurich, then to job with the Berlitz School in Pola where JJ will teach English.

1905

JJ and Nora move to Trieste, where JJ teaches English for Berlitz School. (27 July) Son, Giorgio, born.
Chamber Music
submitted to (and refused by) four publishers in Dublin and London. First version of
Dubliners
submitted to Grant Richards, Dublin publisher, who contracts to publish it, but later withdraws. Stanislaus moves to Trieste (where he stays until his death in 1955).

1906

(July) Family moves to Rome where JJ accepts abortive job in bank. (30 Sept.) JJ writes to Stanislaus, ‘I have a new story for Dubliners in my head. It deals with Mr. Hunter’; later (13 Nov.) identifies it: ‘I thought of beginning my story
Ulysses
.’ Begins ‘The Dead’ instead.

1907

(Jan.) Riots at the Abbey Theatre over J. M. Synge’s
The Playboy of the Western World
. (7 Feb.) JJ writes to Stanislaus: ‘
Ulysses
never got any forrader than the title.’ (Mar.) Family returns to Trieste. JJ writes three articles for
Il Piccolo della Sera
on Ireland. (Apr.) Lectures on ‘Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages’, at the Università del Popolo in Trieste. (May) Elkin Matthews (London) publishes
Chamber Music
. (July) JJ contracts rheumatic fever and is hospitalized; beginnings of his eye troubles. (26 July) Daughter, Lucia, born. Scraps the 26 chapters of
Stephen Hero
and begins to rework entirely as
Portrait
. (Nov.) JJ tells Stanislaus that he will ‘expand his story “Ulysses” into a short book and make a Dublin “Peer Gynt” of it’. Completes ‘The Dead’.

1908

JJ completes first three chapters of
Portrait
, but then sets them aside. Family troubles and continued poverty.

1909

Friendship with Ettore Schmitz (Italian author ‘Italo Svevo’), whose high opinion of
Portrait
fragments spurs Joyce to revise and continue. (Mar.) JJ writes article on Oscar Wilde for
Piccolo della Sera
. (Apr.) Revised
Dubliners
sent to Maunsel & Co. in Dublin. (July) JJ and Giorgio go to Dublin and Galway. JJ signs contract with Maunsel & Co. and meets old acquaintances. One, Vincent Cosgrave, who had also wooed Nora, claimed that she had been unfaithful to JJ with him. JJ’s ‘1909 Letters’ to Nora written as result, first, of his doubting and, later, of his reconciliation with, her. (Sept.) JJ, Giorgio, and JJ’s sister Eva return to Trieste. (Oct.) JJ returns to Dublin as agent for Triestine consortium to open first cinema in Dublin. (20 Dec.) The ‘Volta’ cinema opens.

1910

(2 Jan.) JJ returns to Trieste with another sister, Eileen. ‘Volta’ fails. Publication of
Dubliners
delayed.

1911

Continuing delay of
Dubliners
. JJ writes open letter, published in Arthur Griffiths’s
Sinn Féin
, complaining of his mistreatment at the hands of his publishers.

1912

JJ lectures on Blake and Defoe at the Università, writes article ‘
L’Ombra di Parnell
’ for
Piccolo della Sera
, sits Italian state examinations to become a teacher. Nora and Lucia travel to Ireland, followed quickly by JJ and Giorgio. (JJ’s last trip to Ireland.) Negotiations with Maunsel & Co. finally fail; proofs destroyed. JJ writes broadside ‘Gas from a Burner’ in response and publishes it on his return to Trieste (15 Sept.). JJ begins his (twelve)
Hamlet
lectures at the Università. Begins writing poetry again.

1913

JJ continues
Hamlet
lectures. Grant Richards again shows interest in
Dubliners
. Ezra Pound writes (having been told by Yeats of JJ).

1914

JJ revises
Portrait
, sends first chapter and
Dubliners
to Pound. Pound asks to publish poem (‘I Hear an Army’) in Imagist anthology in USA, and begins serialization of
Portrait
(beginning 2 Feb.) in the
Egoist
(originally called the
New Freewoman
and edited by Dora Marsden and Rebecca West). Under demand of publishing, JJ finishes last two chapters. (June) Harriet Shaw Weaver takes over editorship of
Egoist
. (15 June) Grant Richards publishes
Dubliners
. (Aug.) World War I begins. JJ writes
Giacomo Joyce
. (Nov.) JJ drafts notes for
Exiles
. Begins
Ulysses
.

1915

(9 Jan.) Stanislaus arrested, interned in Austrian detention centre for remainder of war.
Exiles
completed. (15 May) Italy enters war. (June) In return for a pledge of neutrality, Joyce family allowed to leave Austrian Trieste and move to neutral Swiss Zurich. Through the intercession of Yeats and Pound, JJ awarded a grant (£75) from the Royal Literary Fund.
Ulysses
in progress.

1916

Easter Rising in Dublin. (Aug.) JJ granted £100 from the British Civil List (again at Pound’s instigation). (Dec.) B. W. Huebsch (New York) publishes
Dubliners
and
Portrait
. JJ writes ‘A Notebook of Dreams’—‘record’ of Nora’s dreams with JJ’s interpretations.

1917

(Feb.) English edition of
Portrait
published by Egoist Press. JJ suffers eye troubles which lead to his first eye operation (Aug.). (Feb.) Harriet Shaw Weaver begins anonymous benefaction to JJ; her financial support will continue until (and beyond) JJ’s death (when she pays for his funeral). (Oct.) Family goes to Locarno for winter.
Ulysses
continues; first three chapters (‘Telemachia’) written and sent to Pound. JJ contracts with Weaver to publish
Ulysses
serially in the
Egoist
.

1918

(Jan.) Family returns to Zurich. Pound sends ‘Telemachia’ to Jane Heap and Margaret Anderson, editors of the
Little Review
. Serial publication begins with March issue. Under pressure of serialization, JJ continues writing. (May)
Exiles
published by Grant Richards. JJ receives financial gift from Mrs Harold McCormick. JJ forms theatrical group, the English Players, with Claud Sykes. First performance:
The Importance of Being Earnest
. JJ meets Frank Budgen. Further eye troubles. (11 Nov.) Armistice signed. By New Year’s Eve,
Ulysses
drafted through episode 9, ‘Scylla and Charybdis’.

1919

(Jan.) Irish War of Independence begins. Publication of
Ulysses
continues in
Little Review
. January (first part of ‘Lestrygonians’) and May (first half of ‘Scylla and Charybdis’) issues confiscated and burned by US Postal Authorities.
Egoist
publishes edited versions of four episodes (2, 3, 6, and 10). (7 Aug.)
Exiles
performed (unsuccessfully) in Munich. Mrs McCormick discontinues financial support, ostensibly because JJ refused to be psychoanalysed by her analyst, Carl Jung. (Oct.) Family returns to Trieste.

1920

(June) JJ and Pound meet for the first time. (July) Family moves to Paris. JJ meets Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach, later T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis and, later still, Valery Larbaud. (Sept.) JJ sends first
Ulysses
‘schema’ to Carlo Linati.
Ulysses
composition and serialization continue. January (second half of ‘Cyclops’) and July–August (second half of ‘Nausicaa’) issues of the
Little Review
confiscated by US Postal Authorities. (20 Sept.) Complaint lodged by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, specifically citing ‘Nausicaa’ issue. What was to be the final
Little Review
instalment of
Ulysses
(first part of ‘Oxen of the Sun’) published in Sept.–Dec. issue.