We stopped at "... and so on." (Penguin 840.14), (Gabler 17.1566)
Bloom is in the living room. He has just hit his head against a walnut sideboard which had been moved, in his absence, from its original place. He has seen things that bear witness to the recent visit of Boylan. Forgetting the contused tumescence (bump on his head), he takes out from an open box on the table a black diminutive cone (an incense), takes out of his waistcoat a prospectus of Agendath Netaim that he had picked the previous morning at the butcher's, ignites it and lights with it the incense cone, fumigating the room. After killing all the suitors who had settled in his place while he was absent, Odysseus had also throughly purged the hall and the house and the court with fire and sulphur to scourge it of pollution. (Click here to listen to this particular episode, Book 22, in Homer's Odyssey, read by Sir Ian McKellan.)
On the mantelpiece on which Bloom had placed the candlestick, there were three other objects that Bloom and Molly had received from friends as wedding gifts: a marble timepiece (that had not worked for more than 10 years), a dwarf tree and an embalmed owl (symbol of wisdom, embalmed). As Bloom's eyes fall on the reflection of these three objects in the mirror - they also 'observe' one another - he sees himself, a solitary (has no siblings) and mutable (his looks changed as he grew up) man. He also sees reflected in the mirror the books arranged improperly and not in proper order on a book shelf. What follows is a catalogue of Bloom's library. It has a myriad collection of books - poetry, history, literature, astronomy, geometry, philosophy, and physical fitness. (The library at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation has copies of most of these books. Anyone who can get a copy of the book, The hidden life of christ, - author unknown -, will make Fritz Senn, a very happy man, indeed!)
Bloom is sitting down. He feels happy, seeing on the table a statue of Narcissus that he had purchased at an auction. At the same time, he feels constrained by all the layers of clothes he has been wearing since the morning, and takes them off one by one. As he undresses, he feels the scar of a bee sting below the diaphragm (we had heard of it earlier in episode 14). Odysseus also had a scar, above his knees, caused by a wild boar. That is how his old nurse, Eurycleia, recognizes him.
He also empties his pockets, and takes out - and puts back - a silver coin he had with him at the funeral of Mrs Emily Sinico (to get to know her, read the story, A Painful Case, in Dubliners). At this point we are presented with Bloom's budget for the previous day. We are not sure whether this list was written already, whether Bloom notes down the items on the list now, whether he just thinks about them. In any case, the list is quite incomplete, having no mention of the four pence he owes for the sweet lemony soap he had bought at Sweny's (episode 5) nor the shilling he had paid to Bella of the Nighttown in lieu of the damages Stephen had caused there (episode 15).
The next things to come off are his socks and boots. This was the just the second time he had taken his boots off since the previous morning. The first time would have been when he went to the mosque of the baths to enjoy a bath... clean trough of water, cool enamel, the gentle tepid stream (end of episode 5). The smell of a broken piece of a toenail makes him recall other such smells he had experienced as a pupil of Mrs Ellis's juvenile school each night during the nightly prayers, when his thoughts were full of ambitious thoughts.
Of course Bloom has ambitions. The ultimate ambition would be to be the owner of a very special mansion. Two full pages follow detailing the kind of house he would have, the books that would rest on his bookshelf, the flowers that would grow in his garden, the names of shops from where he would buy the seeds necessary for the orchard, kitchen garden and vinery, and the various implements he would keep, and so on.
Bloom is in the living room. He has just hit his head against a walnut sideboard which had been moved, in his absence, from its original place. He has seen things that bear witness to the recent visit of Boylan. Forgetting the contused tumescence (bump on his head), he takes out from an open box on the table a black diminutive cone (an incense), takes out of his waistcoat a prospectus of Agendath Netaim that he had picked the previous morning at the butcher's, ignites it and lights with it the incense cone, fumigating the room. After killing all the suitors who had settled in his place while he was absent, Odysseus had also throughly purged the hall and the house and the court with fire and sulphur to scourge it of pollution. (Click here to listen to this particular episode, Book 22, in Homer's Odyssey, read by Sir Ian McKellan.)
On the mantelpiece on which Bloom had placed the candlestick, there were three other objects that Bloom and Molly had received from friends as wedding gifts: a marble timepiece (that had not worked for more than 10 years), a dwarf tree and an embalmed owl (symbol of wisdom, embalmed). As Bloom's eyes fall on the reflection of these three objects in the mirror - they also 'observe' one another - he sees himself, a solitary (has no siblings) and mutable (his looks changed as he grew up) man. He also sees reflected in the mirror the books arranged improperly and not in proper order on a book shelf. What follows is a catalogue of Bloom's library. It has a myriad collection of books - poetry, history, literature, astronomy, geometry, philosophy, and physical fitness. (The library at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation has copies of most of these books. Anyone who can get a copy of the book, The hidden life of christ, - author unknown -, will make Fritz Senn, a very happy man, indeed!)
Bloom is sitting down. He feels happy, seeing on the table a statue of Narcissus that he had purchased at an auction. At the same time, he feels constrained by all the layers of clothes he has been wearing since the morning, and takes them off one by one. As he undresses, he feels the scar of a bee sting below the diaphragm (we had heard of it earlier in episode 14). Odysseus also had a scar, above his knees, caused by a wild boar. That is how his old nurse, Eurycleia, recognizes him.
He also empties his pockets, and takes out - and puts back - a silver coin he had with him at the funeral of Mrs Emily Sinico (to get to know her, read the story, A Painful Case, in Dubliners). At this point we are presented with Bloom's budget for the previous day. We are not sure whether this list was written already, whether Bloom notes down the items on the list now, whether he just thinks about them. In any case, the list is quite incomplete, having no mention of the four pence he owes for the sweet lemony soap he had bought at Sweny's (episode 5) nor the shilling he had paid to Bella of the Nighttown in lieu of the damages Stephen had caused there (episode 15).
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| The soap missing from Bloom's budget for 16 June 1904 |
Of course Bloom has ambitions. The ultimate ambition would be to be the owner of a very special mansion. Two full pages follow detailing the kind of house he would have, the books that would rest on his bookshelf, the flowers that would grow in his garden, the names of shops from where he would buy the seeds necessary for the orchard, kitchen garden and vinery, and the various implements he would keep, and so on.
