Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | 1916 | James Joyce | Buy |
| 2 | Ulysses | 1922 | James Joyce | Buy |
| 3 | Finnegans Wake | 1939 | James Joyce | Buy |
| 4 | Stephen Hero | 1944 | James Joyce | Buy |
James Joyce’s novels trace an arc from accessible realism to radical literary experiment. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) follows Stephen Dedalus from childhood through university, tracking his intellectual and artistic development in late 19th-century Dublin. The novel draws heavily on Joyce’s own life and uses increasingly complex prose as Stephen matures.
Ulysses (1922) is set on June 16, 1904, and follows Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly, and Stephen Dedalus through a single day in Dublin. The book parallels Homer’s Odyssey and employs different literary styles in each of its eighteen episodes. Finnegans Wake (1939) goes further still, written in a language of puns and portmanteau words that blends dozens of languages. Stephen Hero, published posthumously in 1944, is an early version of Portrait that gives readers a window into Joyce’s development as a writer.