Joyceâs other worksâsome verse (Chamber Music, 1907; Pomes Penyeach, 1927; Collected Poems, 1936) and a play, Exiles (1918)âthough competently written, added little to his international stature.
However, Joyceâs subtle yet frank portrayal of human nature, coupled with his mastery of language and brilliant development of new literary forms, made him one of the major figures of literary Modernism and among the most commanding influences on novelists of the 20th century. Ulysses has come to be accepted as a masterpiece, two of its characters, Leopold Bloom and his wife, Molly, being portrayed with a fullness and warmth of humanity that is arguably unsurpassed in fiction. Joyceâs A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is also remarkable for the intimacy of the readerâs contact with the central figure and contains some astonishingly vivid passages. The 15 short stories collected in Dubliners mainly focused upon Dublin lifeâs sordidness, but âThe Deadâ is one of the worldâs great short stories. Critical opinion remains divided over Joyceâs last work, Finnegans Wake, a universal dream about an Irish family, composed in a multilingual style on many levels and aiming at a multiplicity of meanings, but, although seemingly unintelligible at first reading, the book is full of poetry and wit, containing passages of great beauty.