Is it an autobiography? Well, no. Does it convey elements of Joyce's own life? Well, yes...and while it is fiction, we are with H.G. Wells who said By far the most living and convincing picture that exists of an Irish Catholic upbringing.
Not only is this book and epic of its time, it rang up the curtain on a new literary era, bountifully appreciated by Herbert Gorman. He wrote, So profound and beautiful and convincing a book is part of the lasting literature of our age...in it is the promise of that new literature, new both in form and content, that will be the classics of tomorrow.
Interesting aside: When Joyce was married in 1904, he and his wife went to Trieste, where he taught languages for...Berlitz, who else!
