Part Four: Paris Summary and Analysis

In 1920, Joyce becomes quieter and more restrained. He is always a little lost with his children and this period of his life is no exception. He works to translate Portrait into French, while having trouble finding an appropriate apartment. He eventually has help from a friend. Around this time, he meets Sylvia Beach, legendary owner of the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, and still has help from Pound and Weaver, who send him 2,000 pounds. Still working on Circe (a section of Ulysses), Joyce is distraught to learn that the post office censors have burned the Little Review magazine featuring his Ulysses excerpts, claiming they are obscene. For the moment, Exiles too is blocked from performance. The Joyces change apartments yet again.

During the period between 1921 and 1922, Sylvia Beach unites Joyce with Larbaud, a French writer who greatly admires Joyce's...