詹姆斯·喬伊斯(James Joyce，1882—1941)，愛爾蘭作傢、詩人。1882年2月2日齣生於都柏林，1941年1月13日卒於瑞士蘇黎世。他是意識流文學的開山鼻祖，其長篇小說《尤利西斯》成為意識流文學的代錶作，是二十世紀最偉大的小說之一。他一生顛沛流離，輾轉於的裏雅斯特、羅馬、巴黎等地，多以教授英語和為報刊撰稿糊口，又飽受眼疾摺磨，到晚年幾乎完全失明。但他對文學矢誌不渝，勤奮寫作，終成一代巨匠。

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was completed in 1905, but a series of British and Irish publishers and printers found it offensive and immoral, and it was suppressed.  The book finally came out in London in 1914, just as Joyce's began to appear in the journal under the auspices of Ezra Pound.  The first three stories in might be incidents from a draft of , and many of the characters who figure in have their first appearance here, but this is not a book of interest only because of its relationship to Joyce's life and mature work.  It is one of the greatest story collections in the English language--an unflinching, brilliant, often tragic portrait of early twentieth-century Dublin.  The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life.  Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.