Plan I. Introduction 3 II. Main part 6

The English Players[]

The Pfauen in Zürich. Joyce's preferred hangout was the cafe, which used to be on the right corner. The theatre staged the English Players.^[247]
Joyce co-founded an acting company, the English Players, and became its business manager. The company was pitched to the British government as a contribution to the war effort,^[248] and mainly staged works by Irish playwrights, such as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and John Millington Synge.^[249] For Synge's Riders to the Sea, Nora played a principal role and Joyce sang offstage,^[250] which he did again when Robert Browning's In a Balcony was staged. He hoped the company would eventually stage his play, Exiles,^[251] but his participation in the English Players declined in the wake of the Great Influenza epidemic of 1918, though the company continued until 1920.^[252]
Joyce's work with the English Players involved him in a lawsuit. Henry Wilfred Carr, a wounded war veteran and British consul, accused Joyce of underpaying him for his role in The Importance of Being Earnest. Carr sued for compensation; Joyce countersued for libel. When the cases were settled in 1919, Joyce won the compensation case but lost the one for libel.^[253] The incident ended up creating acrimony between the British consulate and Joyce for the rest of his time in Zürich.^[254]
Third stay in Trieste[]
By 1919, Joyce was in financial straits again. McCormick stopped paying her stipend, partly because he refused to submit to psychoanalysis from Jung,^[255] and Zürich had become expensive to live in after the war. Furthermore, he was becoming isolated as the city's emigres returned home. In October 1919, Joyce's family moved back to Trieste, but it had changed. The Austro-Hungarian empire had ceased to exist, and Trieste was now an Italian city in post-war recovery.^[256] Eight months after his return, Joyce went to Sirmione, Italy, to meet Pound, who made arrangements for him to move to Paris.^[257] Joyce and his family packed their belongings and headed for Paris in June 1920.^[258]
1920–1941: Paris and Zürich[]
Paris[]

James Joyce in a September 1922 issue of Shadowland photographed by Man Ray
When Joyce and his family arrived in Paris in July 1920, their visit was intended to be a layover on their way to London.^[259] In the first month, Joyce made the acquaintance of Sylvia Beach, who ran the Rive Gauche bookshop, Shakespeare and Company.^[260] Beach quickly became an important person in Joyce's life, providing financial support,^[261] and becoming one of Joyce's publishers.^[262] Through Beach and Pound, Joyce quickly joined the intellectual circle of Paris and was integrated into the international modernist artist community.^[263] Joyce met Valery Larbaud, who championed Joyce's works to the French^[264] and supervised the French translation of Ulysses.^[265] Paris became the Joyces' regular residence for twenty years, though they never settled into a single location for long.^[266]