Arguably the most influential writer of the 20th century, James Augustine Joyce redefined the novel and reinvented modern fictional technique. Born in Dublin, Joyce’s first important work is a short story collection, Dubliners (1914). In his novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), he employed "stream of consciousness" to reveal character. With his masterpiece Ulysses (1922) Joyce attained international fame. Finnegans Wake (1939) was his last and most complex work.
