Everyman's Joyce

“Pablo Picasso dismissed James Joyce as an obscure writer that all the world can understand.”

Through the power of illustration the Everyman’s Series illuminates complex bodies of work by some of the 20th century’s most vital thinkers. Picasso’s assessment of James Joyce as a writer that “all the world can understand” speaks to how a perspective that favors the visual can see through dense texts, allowing meaning to take shape.

W. Terrence Gordon’s examination of the James Joyce canon and its impact on the world, both in terms of literature and culture at large, provides accessible and singular evaluations of why Joyce, no matter how impenetrable his books may seem on the surface, continues to attract readers today. In Everyman's Joyce, Gordon’s close readings and biographical insight gel with contemporary visual cues that usher Joyce into the 21st century.