James Joyce
Arguably the greatest of modernist writers, James Joyce was a comic genius, a formal innovator, and an unsentimental poet of Irish life and language. He pioneered the use of inner-monologue and stream-of-consciousness techniques, and made brilliant use of such devices as parody and pastiche. ‘Ulysses’, Joyce’s mock-heroic epic novel, celebrates the events of one day (16 June, 1904) in the lives of three Dubliners and is modelled on episodes in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. The central characters, Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and his wife Marian (Molly), correspond to Telemachus, Ulysses, and Penelope. This June day is known to Joyceans throughout the world as ‘Bloomsday’ . The first edition was published in Paris on Joyce’s fortieth birthday (2 February, 1922).
As James Joyce was working on Finnegans Wake, he asked his friend T.S. Eliot to shepherd an early extract, simply known as ‘Work in Progress’ into print. This celebrated episode, Anna Livia Plurabelle, was the first part of Joyce’s extraordinary text to be published in England. It became the best-known section of Finnegans Wake, and one of Joyce’s favourites; revised and published independently more times than any other piece.
Jame Joyce’s most famous and notable work ‘Ulysses’ is a landmark in twentieth-century literature, and one of the most famous and celebrated in modern literature. Written over a seven-year period in three different cities, it has survived legal action, bitter controversy and persistent misunderstanding. Literature, as Joyce tells us through the character of Dedalus is: “the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man”.
Ulysses was published in three states: 100 copies were printed on Dutch handmade paper and signed by Joyce; 150 large paper copies were printed on heavier vergé d’Arches, and the remaining 750 copies formed this slightly smaller format trade issue.
Joyce’s works influenced writers such as Samuel Beckett, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Jorge Luis Borges, Flann O’Brien, Salman Rushdie, and Cormac McCarthy,[96] and Joseph Campbell.
Bloomsday is a celebration held annually on the 16th of June in Dublin and in an increasing number of cities worldwide. The James Joyce Tower and Museum located in Sandycove, Dublin. The National Library of Ireland store many manuscripts and notebooks in his hand. Museum of Literature Ireland (branded MoLI in homage to Molly Bloom), has a fantastic Joyce collection, including Copy No. 1 of Ulysses. Other locations that hold Joyce material are Trinity College Library, University College Dublin Library, and, modestly, the Dublin Writers Museum. The Central Bank of Ireland issued a silver €10 commemorative coin in 2013 in honour of Joyce that misquoted a famous line from Ulysses.
OUR BOOKS ARE SORTED IN THESE CATEGORIES:
 | COOKE, John. Ed. by. The Dublin Book of Irish Verse (1728-1909). WITH 3 POEMS BY JAMES JOYCE Dublin: Hodges, Figgis. London: Henry Frowde, 1913. Printed on India Paper. Bound by Zaehnsdorf in full brown morocco, covers framed by a single gilt fillet, title in gilt on upper cover spine within a decorative garland of green shamrocks onlay and gilt foliage, spine divided into six panels by five raised bands, title and author […] €450.00 |
 | DALY, Leo. James Joyce and the Mullingar Connection (Signed Limited Edition) With an Introduction by Bernard Share. Dublin: Dolmen Press. 1975. First Edition, pp. 59. Signed imited edition of 750 copies. A fine copy in dust-jacket. Leo Daly argues that Joyce’s two sojourns in the town of Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, were of far grater significance than the handful of incidental references in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. […] €125.00 |
 | JOYCE, James: Finnegans Wake. Faber & Faber Ltd., London, 1964. Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 3rd Edition. Third UK edition, the first printing thereof: Owners signature persent. Per the publisher: “This reprint of Finnegans Wake has been revised to incorporate all the corrections noted by Joyce after the issue of the first edition.” [L1 Joyce] €250.00 |
![JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle. [Signed Limited Edition]](https://www.deburcararebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/JOYCE-Anna-Livia-A-610x813.jpg "JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle. [Signed Limited Edition]") | JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle. [Signed Limited Edition] PERSONIFIES THE LIFFEY – LIMITED EDITION SIGNED BY JOYCE With a preface by Padraic Colum. New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928. First edition, first printing. pp. xviii, [1], 61. Bound in brown cloth, blind-stamped and with inverted gilt triangle in the centre of the upper cover. Spine with gilt title and decorations. Edition limited to 800 […] €5,850.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Chamber Music FIRST UNAUTHORIZED AMERICAN EDITION Boston: Cornhill Company, [1918]. Slim small quarto. pp. [38]. Original green cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt. Front free endpaper removed, occasional light slight spotting in the text. Slocum and Cahoon A5. First unauthorized American Edition of Joyce’s first regularly published work, with print run estimated at 1000 copies. [L1 7E] €375.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Death Mask Bronzed plaster, stamped with initials and dated on reverse; also inscribed on reverse ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Dead Man or Corpus Dedalus For Margaret & Gordon from Breige & Victor Con abrazos besos y muchas Powers’. The mask is a copy of the original made by Swiss artist, Paul Speck shortly after the death of […] €2,750.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Finnegans Wake (First edition) London: Faber, New York: Viking, 1939. First edition, first impression. pp. [viii], 628. Original red cloth, lettering to spine in gilt. A touch of foxing to endpapers; a near fine copy in like dust jacket. Top edge yellow. A remarkably attractive bright and fresh copy in price un-clipped near fine dust jacket. Slocum & Cahoon […] €4,950.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Finnegans Wake. London: Faber & Faber, 1952. Octavo. pp. [ii], 628, 2 [Corrections of misprints]. Red cloth, titled in gilt. A near fine copy in very good dust jacket. No copy of this edition located on COPAC or WorldCat. Originally published in 1939. Joyce’s last and most innovative work in a style which he referred to as […] €345.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Giacomo Joyce. With an Introduction and Notes by Richard Ellmann. London: Faber, 1969. Octavo. First English edition. pp. xx, 28. Red cloth, titled in gilt. A fine copy in near fine un-clipped dust jacket. [Cat 157] €75.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Haveth Childers Everywhere. Fragment of Work in Progress. (Criterion Miscellany – No. 26). London: Faber & Faber, 1931. First English edition. Crown octavo. pp. 36. Original stitched canary yellow wrappers printed in red. A fine copy. [L1 7E] €200.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Pomes Penyeach [SCARCE FIRST EDITION] Paris: Shakespeare & Co., 1927. First edition. Small 12mo. pp. [24] + errata. Original pale green papered boards, titled in black on upper cover. Price and printer in black on lower cover. With errata slip tipped in on lower pastedown. Slight sun-tanning and minor wear to spine. A very good copy. Slocum & Cahoon A24 Pomes Penyeach […] €750.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Two Tales of Shem and Shaun. Fragments from Work in Progress. JOYCE, James. Two Tales of Shem and Shaun. Fragments from Work in Progress. London: Faber and Faber, 1932. First English edition. Crown octavo. pp. 45. Pale green paper boards, title stamped in dark blue on spine. Orange dust jacket with two (almost invisible) nicks, minor wear to corners and spine ends. A very good copy. […] €150.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1967. Crown octavo. pp. [viii], 937. Third Impression of the Re-set Edition. Including appendix with index of corresponding pages. A fine copy in two dust jackets, one lightly frayed . With two dustjackets. The inner jacket has photographs on the jacket taken from Joseph Strick’s film, made in Dublin in 1966/1967. […] €275.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses. [IN FINE GREEK-BLUE MOROCCO BINDING] Preface by Stephen James Joyce. Introduction by Jacques Aubert. With Etchings by Mimmo Paladino. London: Folio Society, 2004. Royal octavo. pp. xix, [3], 735. Bound in full Greek-blue morocco with a design by Jeff Clements blocked in gilt and black on covers and spine; gold endpapers; navy blue and white endbands; blue silk marker. Edition limited to 1750 copies […] €750.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Illustrated by Henri Matisse. [AN ESSENTIAL AND LUXURIOUS COLLECTOR’S EDITION] Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1999. Quarto. pp. v, 732. Full blue/green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt; moiré-silk endpapers, cream and green endbands, gold silk marker. All edges gilt. A fine copy. In a 1920 letter Joyce gives some idea of what he’s attempting in ‘Ulysses’. It is an epic “of the human body as well as […] €475.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Illustrated by Henri Matisse. [AN ESSENTIAL AND LUXURIOUS COLLECTOR’S EDITION] Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1996. Quarto. pp. v, 732. Full blue/green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt; moiré-silk endpapers, cream and green endbands, gold silk marker. All edges gilt. A fine copy. In a 1920 letter Joyce gives some idea of what he’s attempting in ‘Ulysses’. It is an epic “of the human body as […] €475.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922. First edition, number 955 of 750 copies on handmade paper, from a total edition of 1000 copies. “LITERATURE – THE ETERNAL AFFIRMATION OF THE SPIRIT OF MAN” Small quarto. Handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in blue straight-grained levant morocco, spine divided into six panels by five gilt raised bands, title and author in gilt direct in the second and third, the remainder with a gilt device at centres; blue and white endbands; board edges […] €32,750.00 |
 | JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Two volumes. Hamburg: The Odyssey Press, 1933. Second impression. 12mo. pp. (1) 400, (2) [ii], 401-792. Grey card, titled in purple. Mild wear. A near fine set. “The Odyssey Press edition was the first authorized edition of ‘Ulysses’ not printed in France – it was published in English, in Germany at a time when the work was […] €385.00 |
 | KERNOFF, Harry. Woodcut Portrait of James Joyce. Signed by the artist. Single leaf, 193 x 250cm. Circa 1950. In very good condition. Rare James Joyce woodcut. Harry Kernoff (1900-1974), artist, was born in London, son of a Russian father and Spanish mother. In 1914 the family moved to Dublin, where he studied at the Metropolitan School of Art and won the Taylor Scholarship in 1923. He began his working life as […] €975.00 |
 | O’LAOI, Padraic. Nora Barnacle Joyce: A Portrait. Galway: Kennys Bookshops and Art Galleries Ltd., 1982. First edition. 8vo. pp. 115. With photographic frontispiece portrait of Nora Barnacle Joyce and further illustrations in the text. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, in the original pictorial dust jacket featuring the well-known portrait of Nora Barnacle. A near fine copy, the text clean […] €85.00 |
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