Lucia Joyce

"Whatever spark or gift I possess has been transmitted to Lucia and it has kindled a fire in her brain" James Joyce, 1934 Most accounts of James Joyce's family portray Lucia Joyce as the mad daughter of a man of genius, a difficult burden. But Carol Loeb Shloss reveals a different and more dramatic truth: Joyce loved Lucia and they shared a deep creative bond. Lucia was born in a pauper's hospital and educated haphazardly across Europe as her penniless father pursued his art. She wanted to strike out on her own and in her twenties emerged, to Joyce's amazement, as a harbinger of expressive modern dance in Paris. Lucia was a child of the imaginative realms her father created, and even after emotional turmoil wrought havoc with her and she was hospitalised in the 1930s he saw in her a life lived in tandem with his own. Though most of the documents about Lucia have been destroyed, in this important book Shloss painstakingly reconstructs the poignant complexities of her life.

“'Shloss's work is important because Lucia was pivotal to Joyce's work ...; Shloss was able to incorporate new details about Lucia in her new book, including previously unpublished photographs'”

'A brilliant and moving biography' Independent 'Shloss's work is important because Lucia was pivotal to Joyce's work ... Shloss was able to incorporate new details about Lucia in her new book, including previously unpublished photographs' New York Times 'As a writer on dance in the 1920s and on a father's limitless love for his child, Shloss is convincing and impressive' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times 'Shloss gives us a James Joyce we have never seen before' Time Magazine

Carol Loeb Shloss teaches English at Stanford University. She has written extensively on Joyce and other modernists and is the author of three other books including a story of Flannery O'Connor. She lives in Palo Alto, California.

Whatever spark or gift I possess has been transmitted to Lucia and it has kindled a fire in her brain James Joyce, 1934. Most accounts of James Joyce's family portray Lucia Joyce as the mad daughter of a man of genius, a difficult burden. But Carol Loeb Shloss reveals a different and more dramatic truth: Joyce loved Lucia and they shared a deep creative bond. Lucia was born in a pauper's hospital and educated haphazardly across Europe as her penniless father pursued his art. She wanted to strike out on her own and in her twenties emerged, to Joyce's amazement, as a harbinger of expressive modern dance in Paris. Lucia was a child of the imaginative realms her father created, and even after emotional turmoil wrought havoc with her and she was hospitalised in the 1930s he saw in her a life lived in tandem with his own. Though most of the documents about Lucia have been destroyed, in this important book Shloss painstakingly reconstructs the poignant complexities of her life.

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