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Joyce, James: Lots of years ago, a first year English introduced me to Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". I read it, the entire book, liked what I read. One of the lectures was about the "greatness" of Joyce and we were told there were many, many scholars who rated him the "finest" novelist of the 20th./ century. So, I tried "Finnegan's Wake", wow and "what the hell"; I never understood anything of the part I read; doubt if I reached mid point; Joyce was dismissed from my mind. A few years down the road, "The Dubliners". I enjoyed most of the short stories, really liked a couple and I am one of those who are not really into short stories. But, short stories by Joyce might not lead me to think of him being "the greatest". I have read a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald; brilliant, and sometimes between his bouts with the booze he must have cozied up to the English language as other men would to a woman.
Still not sure about Joyce.
Eliot, T.S.: Required reading, perhaps from the same first year English, was his, "Prufrock". Not sure I ever read it but for whatever reason I have always thought of him as being Irish. Sometime in my recent past I was told he was English. However, I became curious as to him being credited for the lyrics used by Webber for "cats"; had a long laugh at myself when I discovered his country of birth; the man was an American, born in St. Louis, graduated from Harvard, studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford....became "English" when hired by Lloyds Bank.
Still not sure about Joyce.
Eliot, T.S.: Required reading, perhaps from the same first year English, was his, "Prufrock". Not sure I ever read it but for whatever reason I have always thought of him as being Irish. Sometime in my recent past I was told he was English. However, I became curious as to him being credited for the lyrics used by Webber for "cats"; had a long laugh at myself when I discovered his country of birth; the man was an American, born in St. Louis, graduated from Harvard, studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford....became "English" when hired by Lloyds Bank.