Art and the Artist

In The Paris Bookseller, the author thematically examines the relationship between art and the artist through James Joyce and his novel Ulysses. When Sylvia first meets Joyce, she believes that he, as an individual, is reflective of his artistic works. She admires the fact that he and Nora “live together as man and wife […] but in an iconoclastic fashion, that [is] in keeping with his writing, the couple refuse[s] to capitulate to social norms” (68). She believes that Joyce’s character contains the same rebellious, disruptive, and provocative qualities as his novels.

Later on, when Sylvia agrees to publish the banned book, her partner, Adrienne, questions if she should work with Joyce. She sees the disparities in the integrity of Joyce’s life and his literature and tells Sylvia that “he is a very great writer but not…a great man” (142). Adrienne believes...