Penguin Random House, author portrait placeholder image

James Joyce

James Joyce, the twentieth century’s most influential novelist, was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882. The oldest of ten children, he grew up in a family that went from prosperity to penury because of his father’s wastrel behavior. After receiving a rigorous Jesuit education, twenty-year-old Joyce renounced his Catholicism and left Dublin in 1902 to spend most of his life as a writer in exile in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zurich. On one trip back to Ireland, he fell in love with the now famous Nora Barnacle on June 16, the day he later chose as “Bloomsday” in his novel Ulysses. Nora was an uneducated Galway girl who became his lifelong companion and the mother of his two children. In debt and drinking heavily, Joyce lived for 36 years on the Continent, supporting himself first by teaching jobs, then through the patronage of Mrs. Harold McCormick (Edith Rockerfeller) and the English feminist and editor Harriet Shaw Weaver. His writings include Chamber Music (1907), Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Exiles (1918), Ulysses (1922), Pomes Penyeach (1927), Finnegan's Wake (1939), and an early draft of A Portrait of a Young Man, Stephan Hero (1944). Ulysses required seven years to complete, and his masterpiece, Finnegan's Wake, took seventeen. Both works revolutionized the form, structure, and content of the novel. Joyce died in Zurich in 1941.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Joyce: Poems and a Play
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Finnegans Wake
Ulysses
Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Ulysses
Ulysses (Gabler Edition)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Portable James Joyce

Books

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Joyce: Poems and a Play
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Finnegans Wake
Ulysses
Dubliners
Dubliners
Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Ulysses
Ulysses (Gabler Edition)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Portable James Joyce

Three Penguin Random House Authors Win Pulitzer Prizes

On Monday, May 5, three Penguin Random House authors were honored with a Pulitzer Prize. Established in 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes are the most prestigious awards in American letters. To date, PRH has 143 Pulitzer Prize winners, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Josh Steinbeck, Ron Chernow, Anne Applebaum, Colson Whitehead, and many more. Take a look at our 2025 Pulitzer Prize

Read more

Books for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

In June we celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual + (LGBTQIA+) Pride Month, which honors the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Pride Month is a time to both celebrate the accomplishments of those in the LGBTQ+ community and recognize the ongoing struggles faced by many across the world who wish to live

Read more