James Joyce 
Finnegans Wake 

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce  (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century.

Joyce is best known for 
Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer’s 
Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he utilised. Other well-known works are the short-story collection 
Dubliners (1914), and the novels 
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and 
Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism and his published letters.