This portrait of James Joyce places the writer in the context of Irish society during his lifetime. At once biography, reference, criticism, and contextual study, the book is enhanced by a selection of illustrative material including maps, sketches, and paintings, and contemporary and specially comissioned photographs. Ranging widely over the body of Joyce's work (and referring especially to Finnegan's Wake), it also includes a chronology of Joyce's life, brief biographies of his friends and contemporaries, and bibliography.