Joyce – Reviews
- At June 03, 2022
- By Great Quail
- In Joyce
0
The books he received for review were almost more welcome than the paltry cheque
Joycean Reviews
This page collects links to historical reviews of Joyce’s fiction and poetry, important reviews of major Joycean works, and full-length reviews published on the Brazen Head. The collection is heavily weighed towards the New York Times, which maintains a comprehensive online archive. More historical reviews will be added over the course of 2022.
Contemporary Reviews of Joyce’s Work
Book Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Portrait)
The New Republic, 17 March 1917. H.G. Wells praises Joyce’s first novel and the insights in offers into Colonial Ireland.
Wistful Verse (Chamber Music)
New York Times, 27 April 1919. A short review praising these lyrical verses.
James Joyce’s Amazing Chronicle (Ulysses)
New York Times, 28 May 1922. Joseph Collins’ positive reception of a future masterpiece.
Book Review: Ulysses (Ulysses)
The New Republic, 5 July 1922. Edmund Wilson on Ulysses: “Yet, for all its appalling longueurs, Ulysses is a work of high genius,” written by the “hand of a master.”
James Joyce’s Linguistic Catch-All (Finnegans Wake)
New York Times, 11 January 11, 1931. Hewrbert Matthews looks at a fragment from Work in Progress, “Haveth Childers Everywhere,” and finds it esoteric and incomprehensible.
James Joyce’s Poetry Does Not Suggest Ulysses (Collected Poems)
New York Times, 10 October 1937. Horace Reynolds on the simplicity of Joyce’s verse.
A New Work by James Joyce (Finnegans Wake)
New York Times, 7 May 1939. Padraic Colum takes a perceptive look at this sprawling “crossmess parzel.”
Stephen Dedlaus in the Rough (Stephen Hero)
New York Times, 11 February 1945. William Troy reviews the precursor to Portrait.
Revaluing James Joyce’s Exiles (Exiles)
New York Times, 21 July 1946. James T. Farrell takes a second look at Joyce’s only surviving play.
An Irish Dante’s Pilgrimage (Portable James Joyce)
New York Times, 7 March 1947. Richard Watts, Jr, reviews the new Penguin anthology.
The Daytime World of James Joyce (Letters Vol. 1)
New York Times, 26 May 1957. Stephen Spender takes an honest look at this complex set of letters.
Self-Portrait of the Artist (Letters Vol. 1)
New York Times, 18 December 1966. Stephen Spender returns to the Epistles of Shem the Penman.
Portrait of the Artist As a Special Kind of Hero (Selected Letters)
New York Times, 23 November 1975. Irving Howe examines this infamous collection of letters.
How the Trick Was Done (Ulysses manuscript)
New York Times, 11 January 1975. Joyce Scholar Hugh Kenner discusses the facsimile of the Ulysses manuscript.
Making the Wrong Joyce (Reader’s Ulysses)
New York Review of Books, 25 September 1997. John Kidd’s wry dissection of the “ill-starred” Danis Rose revision of Ulysses.
Brazen Head Reviews
The Cast of Characters: A Reading of Ulysses
Paul Schwaber. Yale University Press, 1999.
A Joycean psychoanalyst examines the characters of Ulysses.
James Joyce: A Life
Edna O’Brien. Penguin, 1999.
A short and idiosyncratic biography of James Joyce by the novelist Edna O’Brien.
Joyce’s Revenge
Andrew Gibson. Oxford University Press, 2002.
A discussion of Joyce as a specifically Irish writer.
Joyces Mistakes
Tim Conley. University of Toronto Press, 2003.
Conley’s witty book on Joyce’s “portals of discovery,” Finnegans Wake, and the Joyce industry itself.
Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey
Daniel Mulhall. New Island Books, 2022.
A celebration of Ulysses written by the Irish Ambassador to the United States.
Reviews About Important Joycean Works
The Man Who Wrote Ulysses
Review of Herbert Gorman’s James Joyce (1940)
New York Times, 18 February 1940. Horace Reynolds looks the first complete biography of James Joyce.
Review: Ulysses on the Liffey
New York Times, 11 April 1954. John Gross reviews Richard Ellmann’s work about Ulysses.
When the Artist Was a Young Man
Review of Stanislaus Joyce’s My Brother’s Keeper (1958)
New York Times, 2 February 1958. Vivian Mercer examines the biography of Joyce written by his brother.
All Life Was Grist for the Artist
Review of Richard Ellmann’s James Joyce (1959)
New York Times, 25 October 1954. Stephen Spender’s insightful review of Ellmann’s massive biography.
Additional Resources
Search: The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books has published many reviews of Joycean works.
James Joyce Quarterly
The JJQ has published hundreds of reviews of Joycean works, particularly books of academic scholarship. Unfortunately, they do not have their archives online, and their articles exist behind a JSTOR paywall.
Editor: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 1 November 2022
Main Joyce Page: The Brazen Head
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com