Online reading of Thursday, 17 December 2020 (8.532)

The joint online readings of Ulysses held on Thursday, 17 December stopped at: “literary work.” (8.532)

The next reading will take place on Thursday, 7 January 2021.

For more information about the online readings, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020)

Summaries provided on this blog are written by Chandra Holm and are summarised from her eBook Ulysses for the Uninitiated.

Note that summaries will be resumed starting with the reading of 14th January 2021! Till then those of you who are intrigued by U.p: up (8.258) shown on the card that Mrs Breen shows Bloom may want to click here to read some explanations of the same.

Online reading of Thursday, 10 December 2020 (8.322)

The joint online readings of Ulysses held on Thursday, 10 December stopped at: “feast for the gods.” (8.322)

For more information about the online readings, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020)

Summaries provided on this blog are written by Chandra Holm and taken from her eBook Ulysses for the Uninitiated. 

Online reading of Thursday, 3 December 2020 (8.50)

Note: The Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 Oct. 2020) for more information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 3 December stopped at: “knew all the things.” (8.50)

(Summaries provided on this blog are written by Chandra Holm.)

The story of Laestrygonians is the subject of Book X in Homer's Odyssey. After Odysseus and his men are turned away by Aeolus, they have no choice but to sail away from his island. After sailing for six days and nights, they reach the island of Laestrygonians. Not knowing what fate awaits them at the hands of these giant cannibals, Odysseus and a couple of his men approach the palace of Antiphates, the king of Laestrygonians, who promptly seizes one of the men and starts eating him...

The 8th episode of Joyce's Ulysses, often referred to as Lestrygonians, centers on the topic of food. It is after all lunch time. The episode starts with the mention of sweets: pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. Bloom is on his way thinking of having some lunch. The time is 1 p.m. He passes by the sweets shop of Graham Lemon. He is given a flyer announcing, Elijah is coming! (8.13) by a young man. Moving on, Bloom again sees one of the daughters of Simon Dedalus waiting outside Dillon's auctionrooms. He feels sorry for the poor girl (Good Lord, that poor child's dress is in flitters (8.41)). From the O'Connell bridge he watches a barge carrying stout for England. All these things/people he observes, give rise to a cascade of thoughts in Bloom's mind.

Online reading of Thursday, 26 November 2020 (7.1041)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 26 November stopped at: “O'Connell street.” (7.1041)

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

We have almost reached the end of the current episode, referred to commonly as Aeolus. In Homer's Odyssey, Ulysses (Odysseus) reaches the island of Aeolus after he and his crew escape from the land of the Lotus-Eaters. The story is told by Odysseus to Penelope in Book XXIII. Accordingly when Odysseus reaches the island of Aeolus, he is welcomed and feted for a month at the end of which Aeolus gives him a leather bag, made from the flayed hide of a nine-year old ox, and imprisoned all the winds there (1) and sets him on his course to Ithaca after warning him not to open the bag at any cost. Odysseus and the crew sail homeward for 9 days and on the 10th day when their land is in sight and when Odysseus closes his eyes for a short while, his crew, thinking that Odysseus has been given a bag full of riches by Aeolus, opens the bag. A tempest rises and the men in the ship are carried seaward again. Odysseus returns again to the island of Aeolus, who this time closes the doors of his palace against Odysseus, telling him, “Leave our island, now, lowest of living men. It would be against religion for me to set a man on his course when the blessed gods revile him. Go, for you come as one the immortals hate.”(2)

As we have seen, the 7th episode of Ulysses by James Joyce is set in the offices of the Newspapers, Freeman's Journal and Telegraph. It is composed of short sections, each with headlines similar to that in a newspaper. Many of these headlines herald - often directly, sometimes in a really stretched manner - the content that follows. Talks heard/read by well known orators are commented upon/recited, lots of lofty words (many of them hollow and windy) are used, the exception being when Stephen tells a story to Professor MacHugh on the way to Mooney's. In the section with the headline VIRGILIAN, SAYS PEDAGOGGUE. SOPHOMORE PLUMPS FOR OLD MAN MOSES., Professor MacHugh suggests a line from a poem by Virgil as the title of the story but it is rejected by Stephen who prefers a title that echoes the Bible. 

There are two kinds of returning/coming back in this episode, just as Odysseus returns/comes back to the island of Aeolus. The first is when Bloom comes back to the newspaper office after discussing the terms of the advertisement he procures from Alexander Keyes. The second one is when we reach the Nelson's pillar at the end of the episode, the location with which we started the episode. 

Online reading of Thursday, 19 November 2020 (7.765)

Note: For the time being, the Ulysses readings have been moved to an online platform. Please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020) for further information.

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 19 November 2020 stopped at: “both our lives” (7.765)

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

Bloom is still inside Myles Crawford’s office making the phone call to Alexander Keyes. Outside the office, conversation goes on. Any such conversation at that time led to Irish history, to Irish culture, to Irish rebels, to the daring episode of the Invincibles (7.632 - 7.642), . . . There is really no dearth of topics among the people assembled in the Newspaper office. After all this is a Omnium Gatherum, a gathering of all kinds of talents representing, for instance, the law, the classics, the turf, literature (7.605 - 7.608), ... Even the gentle art of advertisement (7.608) would have been represented there if only Bloom were there. Even amidst the discussions on various topics, even amidst the riddles posed  and limericks recited (7.578) by Lenehan, Stephen's mind is busy with its own thoughts (7.583). One of the challenges here is to separate the inner musings (internal monologues) from what is loudly spoken. 

Online reading of Thursday, 12 November 2020 (7.576)

For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020). 

The joint online reading held on Thursday, 12 November 2020 stopped at: “Stephen's ear” (7.576)

Bloom goes into the office of the Evening Telegraph to make a phone call to finalise the ad of Alexander Keyes. In one of the offices, Professor MacHugh, Ned Lambert and Simon Dedalus are gathered. Bloom's entrance is marked only by MacHugh. The other two are busy having delightful fun, reading a passage by Dan Dawson in that day's newspaper. Soon thinking that life is too short (7.330) - to spend reading such articles - Simon Dedalus whisks Ned Lambert away to have a drink. Myles Crawford, the editor, who has come out of his inner office, is not ready to join them just then. As Bloom goes into Crawford's office to use the phone, more people walk in. First Lenehan comes out of the inner office and then Mr O'Madden Burke and Stephen Dedalus enter. Stephen has brought Mr Deasy's letter to show to the editor for possible publication in the newspaper. Professor MacHugh comments - foot and mouth?(7. 527)- referring the letter he peers over, reminds Stephen the comment Buck Mulligan had made that morning (Bullockbefriending bard; 7.528). Stephen muses about his own thoughts as those gathered there continue to converse.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated, by Chandra Holm)

Online reading of Thursday, 5 November 2020 (7.290)

Note: For the time being, all readings of Ulysses have been moved to an online platform. For more details, please see the blog entry titled “All Readings Online” (30 October 2020).

The online reading session on Thursday, 5.11.2020 stopped at: “shook his head.” (7.290) 

Summary (by Chandra Holm):

Aeolus, episode 7, has a different feel, a different look, compared to Hades, the previous episode. It is made up of relatively short sections, with each section having a title, just like a newspaper with headings and sub-headings: IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS, THE CROZIER AND THE PEN, AND IT WAS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME . . . These headlines hint at the content of the section that follow*. For example, the headline "IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS" deals with the happenings at that time (12 noon) at the heart of Dublin. (Remember that Patrick Dignam's funeral is over and the mourners have dispersed and are now engaged with their regular occupations. Our Bloom in trying to sell an advertisement for Alexander Keyes has come to the offices of the newspaper, Freeman's Journal.) The section with the headline "THE CROZIER AND THE PEN" talks about the bishop telephoning that morning William Brayden, the owner of the newspaper. It also introduces Nannetti, a real Dubliner who was a master printer and politician, and who in 1906 became the Lord Mayor of Dublin. And so on . . .

And really it is all about urban life. As we get further into the episode, it becomes quite windy with words, often hollow words. Just like some newspapers!

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

* To be clear, this is not always the case. The headlines in the initial sections of the episode are  indeed related to the content that follows as shown in the examples above. But they are often mysterious, sometimes even misleading. As we read further into the episode, the headlines and the content that follows start diverging even!

All Readings Online

Since the current pandemic has been worsening again, on-site readings are being suspended. 

Instead, the Foundation is providing online readings. All current Tuesday and Thursday groups are merged into one and will start gathering online on 

Thursday, 5 November, at 4.30 p.m. 

The online group begins with episode 7, “Aeolus”. Updates about the group's progress continue to be given on this site. 

Every Thursday morning, readers will receive an email with a link to log into Zoom. 

For those who are using Zoom for the first time: You will need to download the software from zoom.us if you're using a computer, the Zoom app from the Apple store if you're using an iPhone or iPad, or the Zoom app from Google Play if your device is an Android.

If you encounter difficulties or have any questions, please get in touch with the Foundation at info@joycefoundation.ch.

Let's stay connected in the best way we can.

Tuesday, 20 (end of episode 6) & 27 October (...) 2020

The reading group has been split into two halves. The first half met on Oct. 20th and the second on Oct. 27th.

Both groups completed Hades, episode 6.

Summary (till the end of the episode): 

At the end of the last reading, we had left Bloom thinking of using gramophones to remember dead people by recalling their voice. His pondering continues for a while and moves on to the ways in which - apart from burial in the ground - dead bodies can be disposed of: cremation, the Parsee tower of silence, burial in the sea, . . . 

Soon gloomy thoughts leave Bloom. He feels that there is plenty to see and hear and feel yet (6.1003). He meets Martin Cunningham and John Henry Menton. Menton is quite abrupt with Bloom, who crestfallen, moves on reflecting over Menton's behaviour. (Gifford*/6.1025 explains that this last incidence has a Homeric echo. At the end of Book 11, Odysseus encounters in the underworld the shades of several of his former comrades in arms, including Ajax, who refuses to speak to Odysseus because he is still "burning" (angry) over the fact that in the contest over who was to bear Achilles' arms after his death, the Lady Thetis and Athena awarded the honour to Odysseus.)

* Ulysses Annotated by Don Gifford, ISBN 0-520-06745-2

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

PLEASE NOTE

The Ulysses readings are taking place on site again. The group has been split into two halves to ensure more space for readers. The two halves alternate and convene fortnightly.

Updates about the group's progress continue to be given on this site.

Please note that the Foundation is asking participants to sign up in order to be able to adhere to the necessary safety measures. If you would like to join or re-join a group, it will be bst to check beforehand if it is possible and advisable to do so.

Contact:

Email: info@joycefoundation.ch

Phone: 044 211 83 01

For more information please visit the Foundation's website.

Tuesday, 6 & 13 October 2020 (6.969)

The reading group has been split into two halves.

The first half gathered on Oct 6, the second on Oct 13. Both stopped their reading at: “Wisdom Hely's” (6.969).

Summary (upto 6.969):

Episode 6, named Hades, describes Mr Bloom traveling in a creaking carriage to the Prospect Cemetery to attend the funeral of Paddy Dignam. Martin Cunningham, Jack Power and Simon Dedalus are also in the carriage. Joyce develops on the first couple of pages of the episode the characters of these people. Bloom is an outsider in this group. Whenever he tries to say something - which is not often -, his words are mostly ignored by the others. The carriage drives from one end of Dublin to the other, past many well known places, monuments and statues. When it halts at the gates of the cemetery, Bloom and the rest descend and follow other mourners including Dignam's wife and daughter, first to the mortuary chapel where a service is held and later to the burial spot. 

During the burial and afterwards, Bloom's imagination runs riot with various thoughts relating to life and death. For instance, when after the service at the chapel, Tom Kernan says, comparing that service to the one in the Irish church, "I am the resurrection and the life. That touches a man's inmost heart"(6.670), Bloom replies, "It does" (6.671), but thinks that no touching the heart of the fellow in the six feet by two with his toes to the daisies (6.672). For, the heart is a pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are (6.674). After the ceremony when Bloom and others walk through the cemetery, the sight of the saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, . . .  (6.928) makes him think that it would be more sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living (6.930). He wonders at all those dead, musing all these here once walked round Dublin (6.960), thinking of how to remember everybody.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Tuesday, 22 (6.671) & 29 (6.640) September 2020

The reading group has been split into two halves. 

The first half gathered on Sept 22 and stopped at: “It does, Mr Bloom said.” (6.671). 

The second half came together on Sept 29 and read as far as: “lilt here.” (6.640).

Tuesday, 8 & 15 September 2020 (6.293) – Hades

The reading group has been split into two halves. The first half gathered on Sept 8, the second on Sept 15. Both groups stopped at: “Nelson's pillar.” (6.293)

Tuesday, 10 March 2020 (6.707)

The last reading stopped at: “stared ahead.” (6.707)

Summary:
Bloom and others have arrived at the Prospect cemetery. Among the many mourners we meet here are - apart from Dignam's elder son, brother in law - Ned Lambert, Corny Kelleher (who works for an undertaker), Father Coffey (Bloom recalls that he knew his name was like a coffin), Tom Kernan (a tea merchant), John Henry Menton (a solicitor for whom Dignam used to work), John O'Connell (superintendent of the cemetery), and a chap in the macintosh, etc.

These funeral service and burial are interspersed with Bloom's internal monologues. (One of the signature features of Ulysses is the use of internal monologue. Of Bloom, of Stephen, and most famously of Molly in the final episode.) While the other mourners are busy with small talk, Bloom is occupied with his own thoughts. Of widowhood (of Victoria and Albert), about how Dignam's wife and children would manage their life now, about the cause of the swollen belly of the priest, of the rituals of the funeral service, of the effect of reading the prayer in Latin, of none of it mattering to the person who is dead, about the superintendent's life, about the economy of using a separate coffin for every dead person, about what happens to the body that is buried and the soil in which it is buried, about the organ called the heart (A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up: and there you are) . . .

That Bloom is an outsider in the Dublin society is underlined here once again when one of the participants at the funeral, John Henry Menton, asks Kelleher, pointing to Bloom, "Who is that chap ...?" He knew Bloom's wife, Marion Tweedy. Remembering her to have been a good armful, John Henry Menton wonders what did she marry a coon like that for.

Tuesday, 3 March 2020 (6.543)

The last reading stopped at: “laugh at him now” (6.543)

Mr Bloom, Martin Cunningaham, Simon Dedalus and Mr Power travel in a creaking carriage to the funeral of Patrick Dignam. Bloom tries often to make conversation. He starts telling the awfully good one about Reuben J and the son. But everybody in the carriage already knows that story. Anyway this leads to the topic of death, to committing suicide, ... Martin Cunningham tries to stop others expressing their opinions about suicidal death as he knows that Bloom's father had taken his own life. Realising this, Bloom is grateful to Cunningham. Seeing a tiny coffin passing by, Bloom is once again reminded of his son, Rudy, who did not live long after birth.
After passing the statue of the hugecloaked Liberator (Daniel O'Connell) and Nelson's pillar, after coming to a temporary halt because of a herd of cattle being driven, and passing again the stonecutter's yard, the house where Samuel Childs was murdered, the group finally reach the cemetery. While getting down from the carriage, Bloom manages to move the soap from his hip pocket to the inner pocket. They enter the gates of the cemetery making small talk.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Statue of Daniel O'Connell

Tuesday, 25 February 2020 (6.241)

The last reading stopped at: “expresses that.” (6.241)


Episode 6, Hades
Summary:

It is finally time to leave for Patrick Dignam's funeral. Bloom enters the creaking carriage that was to take him, Martin Cunningham, Mr Power and Mr Dedalus. There are many hints in this episode to underline the fact that Bloom is an outsider in the Dublin society.
They all attempt to make conversation during the ride to the Prospect cemetery. But whatever Bloom says does not seem to interest the others. There is also little seriousness in the carriage. For instance, Mr Dedalus gets quite angry just by being told that his son and heir was passing by because he imagines his son, Stephen, in the company of Buck Mulligan, whom he refers to as a contaminated bloody double dyed ruffian by all accounts. Bloom, who witnesses this outburst, feels that he understands the feeling of the father as he himself had a son Rudy, who unfortunately lived only for a few days. The thought of his death makes Bloom think of the moment of conception of his son. Must have been that morning in Raymond terrace she was at the window watching the two dogs at it by the wall of the cease to do evil.
Just when Bloom thinks, he's coming in the afternoon, the others see and greet Blazes Boylan whom they pass. This leads to Mr Power enquiring Bloom about madame and the coming concert tour. They talk about the singers (Louis Werner, J. C. Doyle, John MacCormack) who are to participate in the tour.

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Tuesday, 18 February 2020 (5.542)

The last reading stopped at: “God speed scut.” (5.542)


After getting rid of M'Coy, Bloom moves on, and comes near the open backdoor of All Hallows and enters the church. (All Hallows aka St. Andrew's is a Roman Catholic church on Westland Row.) The paragraphs that follow describing Bloom's observing the rituals which are being conducted involving members of a sodality, and his reactions to what he sees are some of the most hilarious paragraphs in Ulysses.

When the mass is finished, Bloom decides to leave before a person comes around with the collection plate. Outside, noticing that there is still enough time before Dignam's funeral starts, Bloom decides to go to the pharmacy, Sweny's in Lincoln place to get a lotion Molly wants. As he had not bought a bottle with him, Bloom tells the pharmacist to make up the recipe and that he will collect it later in the day. 

As he comes out, he hears the voice of Bantam Lyons hailing him. Lyons wants to have a look at the newspaper Bloom is carrying. When Bloom tells him to keep the newspaper as he was going to throw it away that moment, Bantam Lyons leers, thrusts the newspaper back at Bloom and rushes off. Bloom does not understand his behaviour. Neither do we at this moment. But it will help not to forget this incidence.

Bloom walks with his soap to the baths around the corner from Lincoln Place. 

(Summarized from the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated.)

Tuesday, 11 February 2020 (5.287)

The last reading stopped at: “To keep it up.” (5.287)

Summary:

Mr Bloom leaves his house. He is to attend Patty Dignam's funeral at quarter to (4.549) that morning which means that he has enough time to do other things before going to the funeral. Sauntering along, he passes John Rogerson's quay, Windmill Lane, Lime street, Westland row etc., sees shops such as the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company (5.19) and meets/sees people - for example, the boy and the girl near Brady's cottages (5.5).
He goes into a post office and produces a card on which his name is given as Henry Flower (5.62) and gets a letter waiting for him. Before he could open it outside the post office, M'Coy hails him. Bloom has no interest in stopping and exchanging small talk with M'Coy but cannot get rid of him. As M'Coy stays on to chat, Bloom's attention is distracted by two people waiting near an outsider (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) drawn up before the door of the Grosvenor (5.98) hotel. While Bloom is busy observing and admiring the rich silk stockings (5.122) of the woman and wondering from which side she will get into the carriage, M'Coy continues to talk explaining how he heard of Dignam's passing away. If she would in fact get into the carriage from the side he can see, Bloom would get to see her ankles as she would have to lift her skirt up to get into the carriage! But that does not happen as a heavy tramcar (5.131) goes by blocking his view just as she gets into the carriage! M'Coy finally moves away after telling Bloom, "My missus has just got an engagement. At least it's not settled yet" (5.148) and asking him to put down his name at Patty Dignam's funeral if he is not there because the drowning case at Sandycove may turn up (5.171). We had heard of the drowning case in episode 1.
Bloom is finally left in peace. He strolls towards Brunswick street. His eyes wander over the multicoloured hoardings (5.192) at the corner of Westland Row and Great Brunswick street. One of them is the playbill of the play Leah with Mrs Bandmann Palmer. (Mrs Bandmann Palmer (1845-1926) was a famous English actress.) Bloom recollects that she had played Hamlet the previous night. That a woman had played Hamlet, makes him wonder at first whether Hamlet was a woman. (Perhaps he was a woman. (5.196)) This thought leads to the next whether that was the reason that Ophelia committed suicide. Thinking of 'suicide' naturally makes Bloom remember his father, who had committed suicide.
Walking on, Bloom comes to a secluded spot near the Westland Row railway station, where he opens the letter he had collected earlier at the post office. The letter addressed to Henry Flower by Martha has a flower pinned to it. Now it is clear that Bloom is carrying on an affair under the assumed name of Henry Flower with Martha, whom he is yet to meet! Could meet one Sunday after the rosary (5.270). The pin which Martha has used brings back to his memory a song he had once heard, O, Mairy lost the pin of her drawers. . . (5.281)

Tuesday, 4 February 2020 (end of episode 4)

The reading group has now reached the end episode 4 (“Calypso”).


Summary:
He steps out after just pulling the door after him, without locking it. In the sunny morning, he walks in happy warmth, imagining some other place where it would be early morning as described in one of his books, in the track of the sun depicting a sunburst on the title page, then of the headpiece over the Freeman (a newspaper) leader of the homerule sun rising up in the northwest (4.103).
At the butcher's, he has to wait as the nextdoor girl gets served first. When it is his turn, Bloom wants to buy what he wants quickly so that he can catch up and walk behind her . . . , behind her moving hams (4.171). But outside, there is no sign of her. She is gone. Walking back along Dorset street, he reads the flyer of Agendath Netaim, planters' company, whose offices are at Bleibtreustrasse 34, Berlin, W.15. (4.190)
Back at home, Bloom finds that two letters and a card had come by post. One of the letters if from his daughter, Milly. The other letter is addressed to Mrs Marion Bloom (4.244). Taking up the breakfast tray to Molly,  who is still in bed, Bloom gives her the letter, and finds out that it is from Boylan, who will be bringing the programme (4.312). They are going to sing La ci darem and Love's Old Sweet Song (4.314). As Molly sips her tea, Bloom tries to explain to her the meaning of the word, metempsychosis (4.341) that she had found in the book she has been reading.
In the kitchen, he reads again Milly's letter, has his breakfast, feels a gentle loosening of his bowels (4.460). He goes to the toilet at the back of the garden, sits asquat on the cuckstool (4.500) and reads the story, Matcham's Masterstroke (4.502), by Mr Philip Beaufoy published in an old number of Titbits (4.467) he has taken with him. With the thought that he himself might manage a sketch (4.518), Bloom [tears] away half the prize story sharply and [wipes] himself with it (4.537), pulls up his pants and [comes] forth from the gloom into the air (4.539) as the bells of George's church (4.544) toll Heigho! Heigho! (4.506) . . .

Tuesday, 21 January 2020 (4.76)

The last reading stopped at: “back anyhow” (4.76)


Summary of the beginning of episode 4:

We meet Mr Bloom for the first time in this episode. It is 8 am. Bloom is in his kitchen preparing breakfast. He is also putting her breakfast things on the humpy tray (4.7).
In the very first paragraph we come to know about the kind of food he relishes. (Most of all he like[s] grilled mutton kidneys which [give] to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine; 4.3). A cat is keeping his company, mewing Mkgnao, Mrkgnao, and then Mrkrgnao, asking for milk in the cat's language! After pouring some milk in a saucer for the cat, and watching her shining whiskers as she licks, and wondering whether the whiskers are a kind of feelers, Bloom moves his attention to the breakfast tray he is preparing.
He knows that she [doesn't] like her plate full (4.11). Deciding against ham and eggs, he decides to walk to the butcher, Dlugacz, to buy pork kidney. He calls out softly by the bedroom door whether she wants anything for breakfast. He hears a 'Mn' in answer, and the jingling of the loose brass quoits of the bedstead (4.59).
He picks up his hat from the peg, the crown of which carries the legend, Plato's high grade ha (4.69). Obviously the sweat has erased the last letter of the word 'hat'! After making sure that a white slip of paper (4.70) was still quite safe (4.71) inside the leather headband of the hat, Bloom steps out of the house after just pulling the door close without locking it, as he does not find the latchkey in his pocket. 

Summary of the end of episode 3:

The tide comes in. The water reminds Stephen of the drowned man he had heard about that morning. He pictures to himself how the corpse [rises] saltwhite from the undertow, bobbling a pace a pace a porpoise landward (3.472). Imagining how a quiver of minnows (3.476) will be swimming around the corpse, Stephen tells himself God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain (3.477). In this one sentence God, Jesus, the Featherbed Mountain south of Dublin are brought together explaining the name Proteus, Joyce gave to this episode. 

Still thoughts of Mulligan are not far from Stephen's mind. He searches for the handkerchief Mulligan had taken that morning to wipe his razor blade. Not finding it, Stephen places the snot he had picked from his nostril on a rock, and gets ready to move. Because all days make their end. By the way . . . Tuesday will be the longest day*** (3.490).

Tuesday, 14 January 2020 (3.408)

The last reading stopped at: “library counter” (3.408)

Summary:

Paris, Rodot's (a patisserie), Kevin Egan sipping his green fairy (absinthe), having food, their conversation, his words ("You're your father's son", 3.229), Irish history, his own thoughts that they have forgotten Kevin Egan, not he them (3.263) - all these pictures tumble around in Stephen's mind. Without his realising it, Stephen [has] come nearer the edge of the sea and wet sand [slaps] his boots, (3.265). He turns back, climbs over sedge and sits on a stool of rock(3.284). He sees a dog's carcass, a real dog running across the sweep of sand (3.294), then two people walking towards the shore. (Just as Joyce was, Stephen is also scared of dogs but he decides to sit tight.) This sight triggers in his mind pictures of the Norwegian invaders (Lochlanns), of Dubliners running to the strand to hack the green blubbery whalemeat (3.305) in what would have been a time of famine in Ireland . . . Similarly the dog's bark running towards him (3.310) makes him aware of his fear of dogs, when he (Mulligan) saved men from drowning (3.317) and then the thought of the drowned man takes his mind back to his mother's death (I could not save her; 3.329).

The two people Stephen sees walking shoreward are a woman and a man (3.331). The dog is their's. As the dog suddenly runs off, the man whistles calling the dog back.  The two are cocklepickers (cocklers gather shellfish (cockles) from the sand at low tide; Oxford Reference Dictionary). They wade into the water, dip their bags in, before lifting them again and wading out.

Stephen is sitting on a stool of rock watching the cocklepickers and their dog. (Joyce's description of their actions and of the dog's (running around, sniffing the carcass, etc., are very picturesque.) His mind is busy with thoughts. Biblical episodes, words from the Bible, from Aristotle, from Oscar Wilde, from Yeats, from Ibsen, from Shakespeare and others are swirling around in his mind. Watching the two people walking on the clammy sand, with the woman following the man, Stephen fantasises about the two, about how her fancyman* [treats] two Royal Dblins in O'Loughlinis of Blackpitts**. These thoughts lead to Adam and Eve and their being banished from the Garden of Eden,  followed by the sun's flaming sword (3.391).

Amidst all these thoughts, Stephen tries to jot down a poem he has been composing. Not having any paper at hand -  he had forgotten to take slips from the library counter (3.408) - , he tears of a piece from the letter Mr. Deasy had given him to get published in a newspaper.

Tuesday, 7 January 2020 (3.215)

The last reading stopped at: “conquistadores.” (3.215)

Summary:

After leaving the school, Stephen goes for a walk along the Sandymount Strand. His mind is full of philosophical thoughts, of ideas (for example, on the form and colour of substances) he has read from philosophers such as Jakob Böhme, Aristotle, Dante Alighieri, . . . He recalls Dante's referring to Aristotle in his Divine Comedy as maestro di color che sanno (3.6) that means master of those who know.

Thinking of Aristotle's theory of vision, of bodies and their forms, colours, Stephen closes his eyes and walks a few steps on the Sandymount Strand. He is aware that he is keeping steps one after the other (Nacheinander, 3.13). He is also aware that he is wearing borrowed pants and shoes, giveaways from Mulligan. (My two feet in his boots are at the ends of his legs, 3. 16). He opens his eyes and sees that everything around him is still there, his thoughts echoing Gloria Patri (There all the time without you: and ever shall be. world without end, 3.27).
Stephen sees two women coming down the steps of Leahy's terrace. He imagines that there is a navelcord in the midwife's bag, one of them is carrying. Stephen thinks of navelcords going back to the first of its kind. Could he use it to connect to Edenville (the place of Adam and Eve) by giving the operator the number as aleph, alpha, nought, nought, one (3.39)? There is much of Biblical thinking in this thought, and the ones that follow.
Soon he is close to his aunt Sara's place. Should he go visit her? What would be the reaction of his father if he hears of the visit? Aunt Sara is not rich. Uncle Richie is a clerk. He drafts bills of costs for Goff and Tandy (3.80). It is a far cry from Stephen's boasting that one of his uncles was a judge and an uncle a general in the army (3.106). Houses of decay, mine, his and all(3.105). This awareness of poverty make Stephan recall his dreams when he was young: Books you were going to write with letters for titles (3.139) . . .  Someone was to read them there after a few thousand years, a mahamanvantara (3. 143). 

Immersed in his own thoughts while walking on Sandymount Strand, Stephen, realises that the grainy sand had gone from under his feet (3.147). The strand there is highly polluted, smelling of sewage. When he understands that he had passed the way to his aunt's house, Stephen turns and walks towards the Pigeonhouse (a power station). The name makes him think of not only the book La Vie de Jesus by M. Leo Taxil (3.167) in which Joseph asks Mary who put her in that state, and gets the answer, "It was the pigeon, Joseph" (3.162) - after all according to the Ballad of the Joking Jesus, his father was a bird - , but also of Kevin Egan and his son, Patrice as well as of his own days in Paris. Stephen recalls his returning from Paris after getting a telegram from his father that said, Nother dying come home father (3.199). This thought inevitably leads to memories again of his mother's death.