Where to start with: James Joyce

Always wanted to tackle the great Irish writer but not sure Ulysses is for you? This handy primer may just help you find a way in

The books of James Joyce, along with Middlemarch and War and Peace, were among the titles that many vowed to read when the UK was plunged into its first coronavirus lockdown. Almost two years later, we now know that most of us filled all that time indoors with Netflix and Zoom quizzes rather than catching up on lengthy classics (apart from the author David Mitchell, who did read Ulysses in 2020). But with this month marking the centenary of Ulysses and 140 years since Joyce's birth, perhaps now really is the time to familiarise or re-familiarise yourself with the influential modernist writer.

The entry point