Margot Norris' The Value of James Joyce explores the writings of James Joyce from his early poetry and short stories to his final avant-garde work, Finnegans Wake. His works include some of the most difficult and challenging texts in the English literary canon without diminishing his impressive popularity beyond the scope of academia. A democratic impulse may be counted as an important feature of this paradox: that Joyce's stylistic and linguistic experiments never lose their focus on a world of characters whose everyday activities comprise the stories of life in Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, even as some of the most famous texts are given structures derived from Ancient Greek literature. The Value of James Joyce examines not only the significance of the ostensibly ordinary but the function of natural and urban spaces, classical and popular culture, and the moods, voice, and language that give Joyce's works their widespread appeal.

'Throughout her book, Norris allows Joyce’s works to speak for themselves as she revisits story-lines in specific contexts that anchor her emphases on the significance of the ordinary, Ireland’s urban/natural place, classical and popular culture, and Joyce’s language. … aided by Norris’s engagement with the book’s prisms of the ordinary, place, culture(s), and language, readers will enjoy revisiting some of the familiar and rich territory that is the Joycean world.'

Jolanta Wawrzycka Source: Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies

'Margot Norris is one of the foremost James Joyce scholars of her generation … In this her most recent work, The Value of James Joyce, Norris considers the entire Joycean corpus (the neglected poetry and drama as well as the famous prose works) and assesses Joyce’s achievement, meaning, and impact more broadly than in any of her earlier works. The result is a volume that will benefit novice and seasoned Joyce students alike.'

Brian W. Shaffer Source: English Literature in Transition

'No scholar has contributed more to the ongoing critical project of reading James Joyce’s works than Margot Norris … As is her critical custom, Norris has again produced an important guide for both virgin and veteran readers. There is great value in The Value of James Joyce.'

Karen R. Lawrence Source: James Joyce Quarterly