Please note that there will be no reading on December 30. The next reading will take place on Thursday, 6 January 2022.
The last reading stopped at: “Phoucaphouca.” (15.3349)
Chandra Holm's eBook Ulysses for the Uninitiated is now available for 10 SFrs. Find more information about the eBook or place an order.
The last reading stopped at: “Be candid for once.” (15.3043)
Chandra Holm's eBook Ulysses for the Uninitiated is now available for 10 SFrs.
Find more information about the eBook or place an order.
The last reading stopped at: “(Exeunt severally.)” (15.2639)
Note: The eBook, Ulysses for the Uninitiated, by Chandra Holm is available as of today for 10 SFrs. More information here!
The last reading stopped at: “rather lean.” (15.2327)
The last reading stopped at: “black in the face.” (15.1958)
The reading stopped at: “is now open.” (15.1629)
The last reading stopped at: “handed into court.” (15.1005)
The reading stopped at “tremendously conserve.” (14.1564)
The reading stopped at "Silentium!" (14.1457)
Kindly note that no summary of the reading for this session is being posted here. Posting summaries will be resumed in two weeks. Appreciate your understanding!
The reading stopped at ". . . about the place." (14.1197)
Kindly note that no summary of the reading for this session is being posted here. Posting summaries will be resumed in three weeks. Appreciate your understanding!
The reading was stopped - midway of a long paragraph - at "... upon the menopause... "(14.971)
Summary:
Mulligan's attention now turns to the stranger among them, asking him - ironically - whether he (the stranger) was in need of any professional assistance that they could give. As the stranger, who, in fact, is Bloom, answers quite seriously that he has come to see about a lady, Mr. Dixon takes his chance to poke fun at Mulligan using bombastic medical terms.
Next it is Alec Bannon's turn. Written in the style of the Irish novelist, Laurence Sterne (1713-68), this section describes how Bannon starts talking in a flowery language about his meeting a girl (Milly), of her beauty, etc. What follows is another play of words with double meanings. Does Bannon really feel that he should have taken his cloak along or something else, does the marchand de capotes (14.776) he refers to mean a cloak merchant or a merchant of condoms? After all this episode is mainly about sterility and fertility.
With this kind of bantering going on, the style changes again to that of the 18th century Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), the author of The Vicar of Wakefield. A bell rings. Nurse Callan enters and speaks in a low tone to Mr. Dixon. The room breaks out again in ribaldry once she leaves. Dixon rebukes them, and leaves the room to go and attend to Mrs. Purefoy, who has just given birth.
Attention and style change again. Attention to the musings of Bloom, style to that of another Anglo-Irish essayist and political theorist, Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Bloom reflects upon the raucous behavior of the young men around him. As always, he is ready to find excuses for his fellow human beings, attributing such boisterous behavior as he is witnessing to their age.
At this point, the novel questions - in the style of the political satirist, Junius -, what right Bloom, an outsider, has to have such thoughts. After all it seems that not everything is alright at his own home (. . . a seedfield that lies fallow for the want of the ploughshare (14.929)), and as he has a habit reprehensible at puberty . . . (14.930), a reference to his masturbating on the Sandycove beach. (See episode 13).
The reading stopped at ". . . drake and duck." (14.712)
Summary:
By now we realise that this episode takes place simultaneously in two time frames, one referring to the time of the day (it is 10 pm) and the other to the time frame of the history of literature.
Buck Mulligan, who has been attending a party at Mr Moore’s, is on his way to the maternity hospital to meet his friends, when he comes across Alec Bannon, who has come from Mullingar, where he had met Bloom's daughter, Milly. Mulligan knows Bannon as his (Mulligan's) brother is staying with the Bannons. Both Mulligan and Bannon head to the hospital.
With the change in style imitating that of Daniel Defoe, the 18th century English writer, the topic changes to describing the behavior/character of Lenehan, who is interested in horse races, and who always has many stories to tell. Lenehan says that he has made sure that Mr. Deasy's letter on the foot and mouth disease, which Stephen had brought earlier, is in that night's gazette. On hearing that the cows are to be butchered, Bloom, who had once worked for Mr Joseph Cuffe, a cattle, corn and wool salesman, questions whether the cows indeed have the foot and mouth disease.
What follows is a play on the word “bull”. In the style of Jonathan Swift, the 18th century Anglo-Irish writer, the assembly talks in turn of a bull that's Irish, of an Irish bull in an English chinashop and of the papal bull. The word, bull, becomes just an excuse to discuss Irish history at length.
It is at this time that Mulligan appears with Bannon. Mulligan comes in again as a harbinger of fun, of lightheartedness. He announces that he plans to set up a national fertilising farm to be named Omphalos (14.684) and to offer his services to the poorest kitchenwench no less than the opulent lady of fashion (14.689). Here Joyce is taking on the controversial topic of eugenics of which a chair had been established in the early 1900s at the London university.
Mulligan's description of the project entertains his audience, except for Mr. Dixon, who thinks that it is a useless exercise like carrying coals to Newcastle.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at ". . . brenningly biddeth." (14.473)
Summary:
As the assembled young people continue to drink and joke, Bloom’s thoughts turn not only to Mrs Purefoy, who has been in labour since three days, but also to the memory of his son Rudy, who died when he was just eleven days old. He observes Stephen and feeling rather fatherly toward Stephen is sorry to see him lead a wasteful life of debauchery.
Punch Costello strikes up a bawdy song, when Nurse Quigley comes to the door and reminds them to show some restraint as after all they are in a hospital.
Bloom seems to be the exception to the drinking bout going on. In what is reminiscent of the earlier episode in the library, Stephen is being very voluble. He is quite liberal with his allusions to the old testament and he also refers to other well known - and also not so well known - works of writers, poets and playwrights and philosophers. Naturally Shakespeare makes an appearance in the references to the secondbest bed, to Hamlet and his father.
As Punch Castello starts reciting the parody of a nursery rhyme interrupting Stephen's oratory, thunder is heard from outside. Just like Joyce in real life, Stephen too is scared of thunder. Bloom tries to calm him down, explaining in his typical manner the cause of thunder as a natural phenomenon. But Bloom's words do not succeed in quietening Stephen's fear.
As thunder and rain rage outside the hospital, the style of the episode changes yet again, this time to that of Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist of the 17th century.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at ". . . postcreation." (14.294)
Summary:
As noted earlier, this episode goes through the history of the style of English literature by showing stylistic progression in parallel to that of the embryo. Joyce does this by starting the episode using phrases of 3 words repeated 3 times (starting with Deshil Holles Eamus) in the manner often associated with ceremonies and incantations. He follows this by adapting the style of the Roman historians, Sallust and Tacitus in the section starting with "Universally that person's acumen is esteemed ... "(14.7). The following section - starting with "It is not why therefore ... " (14.33) is in the style of Medieval Latin prose. Soon the style changes to that of Anglo-Saxon prose, the 10th century style, attributed to Aelfric. Today's reading also encompassed sections written in the style of the 14th century writer, Sir John Mandeville and 15th century writer, Sir Thomas Malory.
Joyce narrates, within this framework, how Bloom comes to the hospital to enquire about Mrs Purefoy who has been in labour for three days. He encounters in the hall, a nurse, whom he had known earlier, and Dr. Dixon, who had once treated him for a bee sting, and meets a group of medical students and Stephen, drinking ale and making merry in a room of the hospital. They are busy discussing very hot topics. Stephen is his usual self, talking in enigmatic terms. Of course, all these happenings are often very difficult to decipher and understand in the medley of styles encountered.
And it is here that Bloom meets Stephen!
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at " . . wariest ward." (14.78)
Summary:
The name of this episode, Oxen of the Sun, refers to the Homeric episode in which the men of Odysseus committed a grave crime - they killed the sacred oxen - while Odysseus was asleep.
Before he had written the episode, Joyce wrote to his friend Frank Budgen on 20th March 1920 that he intended to compose it in the style that follows the history of English prose, and that he would do it in analogy to the development of an embryo.
Thus this episode goes through the history of the style of English prose. It does so by showing stylistic progression in parallel to that of the embryo. (The episode has 9 parts in analogy to the 9 months of pregnancy.) The language goes from the style of Latin to that of simpler Anglo-Saxon. Note that seeing language as something that could progress in a biological way reflects what was in the air at Joyce's time, when people were very concerned with the discoveries of Darwin and other studies of evolution. When languages were discovered to be related, when, for example, one could speak of “families” of languages, of the new science of etymology - studying word change, vowel shifts etc - they could be seen as evolutionary, something developing in a Darwinian sense. Joyce renders some of this idea in this episode by presenting language as something evolving almost biologically. The imitations of styles can also be seen as a translation of sorts: everything is translated into an earlier period. Ulysses has indeed been described as the book that translates itself.
All this makes this episode quite a challenge to read.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at ". . . winked at Mr Bloom." (13.1181)
Summary:
We are reaching the end of Nausicaa, episode 13. Dusk is falling on the Sandymount Strand. We have been sort of confidantes of Gerty's marital dreams. We have listened to the Litany of Loreto from the church near by, have witnessed Bloom's masturbation - another climax of the episode -, and have watched along with Bloom and the three girl friends fireworks from the Mirus bazaar. We have seen Gerty leaving the strand to go home and have realised that she is a bit lame. As darkness falls, Bloom becomes aware of a bat flying around, his thoughts turning from Gerty to the bat.
And far on Kish bank the anchored lightship twinkle[s] , wink[s] at Mr Bloom (13.1180). This sentence marks the division between two parts in this episode: the first part is rendered in Gerty's style (sugary, inflated, ...), the latter part in Bloom's post-orgasmic, more down-to-earth, deflated style.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at ". . . don't tell." (13.753)
Please note that the blog is on vacation! The next posting will be in two weeks!
The reading stopped at ". . . or some place." (13.465)
Summary:
There is more background information about Gerty on these pages. We read about Gerty's intense yearning to find a husband (her longing after a manly man with a strong quiet face, 13.210), her current home-life (father who was a prey to the fumes of intoxication (13.299), her snuff-taking mother, who gets raging splitting headaches (13.327), and even the picture of halcyon days (13.334) that she had tacked on the wall of that place - the toilet), and about the tension amongst herself, Cissy Caffrey and Edy Boardman, who were introduced to us at the beginning of the episode as three girl friends (13.9).
It is with the description of Jacky and Tommy playing with the ball that a gentleman in black sitting there by himself (13.349) is brought into the picture. This part establishes the link between Joyce's Nausicaa in Ulysses and Homer's Nausicaa in the Odyssey. Gerty, who becomes aware of the gentleman, is very quick to forget all about Reggy Wylie, the boy who used to ride a bicycle in front of her window and to transfer her affections and daydreams to him.
When all this is going on, sounds of the recitation of the litany of Our Lady of Loreto (13.287) in the church nearby, where the men's temperance retreat was being conducted (13.282), are carried over to the strand.
The reading stopped at "... was not to be." (13.199)
Summary:
“In Book 5 of The Odyssey, Odysseus leaves Calypso's island, is harassed by Poseidon and is finally beached at the mouth of a river in the land of the fabulous seafaring people, the Phaeacians. Odysseus hides in a thicket to sleep off his exhaustion and in Book 6 is eventually awakened by the activities of the Princess Nausicaa and her maids-in-waiting, who have come to the river to do the palace laundry” (Gifford, 13.1-1306).
A far cry from the Joycean style which we have gotten to know in the previous episodes, the style here is one of over-sentimentality. The very first sentence sets the tone for the entire episode. It is 8 p.m. Three girl friends - Cissy Caffrey, Edy Boardman, Gerty MacDowell - are seated on rocks on the Sandymount strand. Four year old twins, Tommy and Jacky Caffrey, have come along with the girls, who have also brought with them an eleven month old baby in a pushcart.
Most of what was read today was about Gerty MacDowell, her looks, her dress, her dreams and her yearnings.
This reading session marked the completion of Cyclops, episode 12.
Summary
Bloom returns from the courthouse, where he has been looking for Martin Cunningham. Cunningham, feeling the tension in the air, makes a quick exit with Bloom, Jack Power and Crofton. Their hasty exit in a jaunting car cues in another interpolation, a short report of a kind of nautical farewell, and is full of sailing technicalities.
Though Bloom quits the pub, the citizen does not keep quiet. The situation turns nasty with him rushing out and bawling at Bloom. As onlookers enjoy the scene, Bloom starts to retaliate, evoking names of famous - though here irrelevant - Jews including Mendelssohn, Karl Marx, Mercadante, Spinoza and even Jesus and his father. Enraged, the citizen storms into the pub. It is time for another interpolation, another parody of another departure.
Just as the jarvey goes round the corner, the citizen hurls the biscuitbox after Bloom. It misses the target and the old tinbox clatter[s] along the street (12.1857). The interpolation that follows is gigantic in nature, dealing as it does with an earthquake. Bloom's escape is parodied in the very last paragraph of the episode in which Joyce at first uses biblical language describing how the prophet Elijah ascended to the heavens and ends the episode with ordinary language.
Cyclops, episode 12, bears the closest similarity in the entire novel to Homer's Odyssey. There is similarity between the citizen and Polyphemus as well as between the biscuit box thrown by the citizen and the rock thrown by Polyphemus. Some of the other features that invoke Homer's work are (a) the numerous references to 'eye' in the singular form hinting at the single-eyed giant, (b) Joyce’s playing with names through out the episode with how Odysseus introduces himself to Polyphemus by saying his name is "Οὖτις", and (c) the gigantism of the entire episode.
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| Polyphemus Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polyphemus.png |
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at "Tis a merry rogue."(12.1620) but we shall continue the next session with the parody that starts with "Our travellers reached ..." (12.1593)
Summary:
In Barney Kiernan's pub, the citizen’s behaviour becomes increasingly aggressive towards Bloom, whom he ridicules and insults. The situation reaches the first climax of the episode when the citizen asks Bloom, “What is your nation if I may ask (12.1430),” spitting and wiping his mouth with a handkerchief when Bloom replies, "Ireland, . . . I was born here. Ireland (12.1431).” The handkerchief is a cue to start another parody celebrating Irish handicraft. There are more exaggerations and parodies in the remaining part of the episode: for example, of foreign customs, of the Bible, and of different types of fiction.
Bloom continues his rather serious talk that seems more forceful and infused with more emotion than usual, getting increasingly cornered when he expresses his opinion. He finally chooses to find an excuse to leave the pub.
The men continue with more talk of England's cruelty to Ireland, until Lenehan takes the floor and starts talking about Bloom and his actual reason for leaving. He claims that Bloom has gone to collect his wins from the horse race of the day. As proof he tells the story of his meeting Bantom Lyons, who had said that he had borrowed a newspaper from Bloom earlier in the day (See episode 5, Lotus Eaters). We finally understand, retrospectively, what had not made any sense before in that episode.
Cyclops, an episode of misunderstandings, presents facts that are not straight forward, and connects thus to the episode in Odyssey where Odysseus saves himself through a play on words, calling himself "Οὖτις", which means 'nobody'. This works ironically precisely because Bloom cannot play on words.
At this point, the narrator takes off to the gents' room. He urinates, thinking or talking to himself. His thoughts come out in spurts, which seems somewhat appropriate to his relieving himself.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
(In case you missed last week participating in the virtual events celebrating Bloomsday, below are two links that could be of interesting:
Bloomsday Readings and Songs from the James Joyce Center, Dublin
I Said Yes: A Celebration of Bloomsday at The Rosenbach from The Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia)
The reading stopped at ". . . be paid." (12.1359)
Summary:
The citizen's next remarks about strangers coming over here to Ireland filling the country with bugs (12.1141) aimed obviously at Bloom, a foreigner amidst the Dubliners, are ignored by Bloom. He looks to be awfully deeply interested in nothing, a spider's web in the corner (12.1160), . . . the citizen scowling after him, and the old dog at his feet looking up to know who to bite and when (12.1161). It is a very picturesque sentence. One can almost breathe the anti-semitic, anti-foreigner air in the room.
As the citizen's next remark about a dishonoured wife (12.1163) induces Alf Bergan to produce, gigglingly, a copy of the Police Gazette, a forerunner of today's tabloids, John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan enter, having come from a meeting in the city hall. It is time for another interpolation with a reference to the most obedient city (12.1185).
There is more nationalistic talk amongst the pub-goers, who praise the Irish language contrasting it with English, triggering another interpolation, written about an ancient Irish hero in the old Irish past. Bloom mingles in the talk a little awkwardly and uncharacteristically aggressively. The talk eventually moves on to how England exploited Ireland and left it virtually without trees. (The issue of deforestation was indeed a genuine concern at the time.) The ensuing interpolation, true to type, brings up the idea of breeding trees in a parody of a tree wedding.
The aggressive talk continues to how the English starved the Irish, how they were cruel in discipline and training . . ., then to the French and the Germans. The talk about the British heralds another hilarious parody of the Catholic Credo!
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
Today is Bloomsday!
Below are a couple of links on how the day is being celebrated at different places. Many of these events take place online.
1. Detailed information on Bloomsday Programme in Dublin is available here.
2. Information on the special programme offered by The Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia which owns the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses is available here.
3. Over 30 of Ireland's Embassies and Consulates are marking the day with a variety of events including a Global Joycean Book Giveaway. Details are here.
4. Zurich James Joyce Foundation has arranged an open air event. The event is already sold out.
The reading stopped at ". . . stuck for two quid." (12.1093)
Summary:
Soon the discussion moves on to a boxing match, the Keogh-Bennett match. Gifford* mentions that "the match does have some basis, since one M. K. Keogh did box one Garry in late April 1904. Percy Bennett, a member of the Zurich consular staff when Joyce lived in the city, is a grudge substitute for the more Irish Garry." During Alf Bergan's description of how Keogh boxed Bennett the name of Boylan again comes up. Bloom cuts in again about lawn tennis and the circulation of blood (12.952), topics of least interest to the Dubliners gathered there. In fact, this boxing match is described by yet another interpolation, written as a parody of sports journalism style.
If there was one name Bloom does not want to hear mentioned, that is of Boylan. But the name is mentioned again, with Alf Bergan even bringing up the concert tour Boylan is organizing.
At this stage there are two short interpolations. One is about Bloom's wife written as a parody of medieval romance, and the other is about the entrance of Ned Lambert and J. J. O'Molloy, two characters we had met earlier. Bergan mentions again Breen and Breen's violent reaction to the postcard saying U. p.: up. As they all finally agree to enjoy their pints in peace (12.1075), they see Breens and Kelleher passing the door.
* Ulysses Annotated, Don Gifford, Robert j. Seidman, 1988; (10.1133-34)
The reading stopped at "Klook Klook Klook." (12.849)
Summary:
By now we have got used to - and actually have learned to enjoy - the interpolations that Joyce has inserted into this episode. My favourite is the one starting with "In the darkness spirit hands were felt to flutter ... (12.338)." (We had read it in the previous session.) Joyce takes this opportunity in creating a parody of the beliefs of the Theosophical Society, of which prominent Dubliners such as W. B. Yeats were members. He embellishes his description of how a seance could look like by using a lot of modified Sanskrit words such as prālāyā (the original Sanskrit word has no elongated 'a's and means the deluge that ends the world), jivic (jiva - with an elongated 'i' - in Sanskrit means breath, life), atmic (the Sanskrit word atma, in which the first 'a' is elongated, means soul), etc.
Apart from the three parodies on the pages read in this session, what is of interest here is how Bloom has been portrayed as an outsider in the Dublin society. Bloom comes to Barney Kiernan's pub but does not want to have a drink. When Alf Bergan, who has also come in, starts sharing with his friends some letters from is office, and their conversation moves on to the topic of hanging, Bloom starts explaining what happens scientifically when a person is hanged, an explanation that interests none there. Anti-semitic sentiments are expressed freely when the citizen's dog starts smelling Bloom and the citizen says, ". . . I'm told those jewies does have a sort of a queer door coming off them for dogs (12.452)."
It is also obvious that, amidst all this, Bloom's mind is occupied with thoughts of what could be happening at that time at his home, when, talking about Dignam's wife, he says 'Wife's admirers (12.767)" when he really meant to say, "Wife's advisers (12.769)."
The reading stopped at ". . . Kriegfried Ueberallgemein." (12.569)
Apologies for not posting any summery of the reading. It is planned to resume the posting of summaries next week. Appreciate your understanding.
The reading stopped at ". . . flabbergasted." (12.337)
Summary:
In the pub they find the citizen sitting with a sheaf of papers, waiting for someone to buy him a drink. A rather fearsome looking dog called Garryowen is sitting at his feet. The citizen is said to be working for the cause (12.123), which could refer to the revival of Irish culture or to Irish independence. The citizen, a rather narrow minded nationalist, has been modeled by Joyce on Michael Cusack (1847-1907), founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association, dedicated to the revival of Irish sports such as hurling, Gaelic football and handball. The Irish Revival was very topical at the time the story of Ulysses is set at. Joyce describes the citizen as a sort of prehistoric Irish warrior. He is said to be adorned with tribal figures mentioned in a list of Irish heroes some genuine, some fake, the list finally growing completely out of proportion. Joyce's description here obviously owes a debt of ‘gigantism’ to Homer’s description of Polyphemus, one of the Cyclopes in Odyssey (Gifford, 12.151-205).
Even the language becomes at times rather violent, reminiscent of the big uncouth giants of Homer. It drifts into parodies. Sometimes adjectives are piled up, the language becomes cumulative, hyperbolic, bordering on being kitschy. In short, Joyce's technique here is gigantic; everything is elaborated, exaggerated.
In Kiernan's pub, Joe Hynes and the anonymous narrator are being served by Terry. Hynes pays for the pints with a sovereign that he says was given to him by Bloom, referring to him as the prudent member (12.211), hinting that Bloom could be a Freemason. The citizen is busy reading birth, marriage and death notices in the “old woman of Prince's street” (the Freeman's Journal). His dog, old Garryowen, bares its teeth, growling now and then, and gets kicked in its ribs as a reward. Bob Doran (a character we know from the story, The Boarding House, in Dubliners) is sitting in a corner in a stupor, snoring drunk blind to the world (12.251).
This group of pub visitors is joined soon by Alf Bergan, who is doubling up with laughter, remembering how Mr. Breen was upset because he had received that morning the card on which it was written U. p: up.
Note: There will be no Zoom meeting on Thursday, the 13th of May 2021, as the day is the Day of Ascension.
The reading on Thursday, 6th May stopped at "... says he." (12.67)
(We completed Sirens, episode 11 and started with Cyclops, episode 12.)
Summary:
Episode 11
The episode 11 in which music is present in various forms, in its structure and terminology as well as in the reference to arie, songs, and musical instruments, reaches its high point (if one has to settle for just one) close to the end when Ben Dollard sings the tragic Irish ballad, The Croppy Boy, moving with his voice the hearts of all those assembled in the Hotel Ormond. Bloom wants to leave the hotel before the song ends. He is occupied with thoughts of Boylan, imagining how just at that time Boylan would perhaps be knocking at the door of Eccles street 7.
Listen to Kevin McDermott (1844-1892) rendering The Croppy Boy.
Episode 12
Cyclops, the succeeding episode, is a very funny and at the same time a serious episode. Its special characteristic is the insertion of 30 and more parodies/interpolations to highlight a particular point of interest.
The episode opens with a narrator, who is, and remains nameless. It is five o'clock in the afternoon, and as he is just talking to old Troy of the D. M. P. (an inspector of the Dublin Metropolitan Police), a chimney sweep passes by and nearly puts out his eye with his broom and ladder. The near miss of the chimney sweep’s broom and ladder (reminiscent of Odysseus’s burning pike of olive wood) suggests that the narrator is one of the Cyclopes (Gifford, 12.2-3). He sees Joe Hynes coming down the street, and tells him about this encounter with the chimney sweep. When Joe asks what the narrator is doing in these parts of the city, the narrator replies how he has been trying, without success, to collect bad debt from a plumber called Geraghty, who had bought nonperishable goods such as tea and sugar from Moses Herzog, a Jewish dealer, but then failed to pay.
Joe Hynes, a reporter, has been at a meeting of the Cattle Traders Association in the City Arms Hotel. He wants to inform someone referred to here as the citizen, for reasons not told, what went on at this meeting. He and the narrator walk round to Barney Kiernan's, 1 pub at 8-10, Little Britain Street near the courthouse on Green Street. Indeed, barristers from there used to adjourn to Barney Kiernen's to drink and discuss cases.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at ". . . Dolphin's Barn Lane Dublin." (11.899)
Summary:
Listening to the song, When first I saw that form endearing . . , coming from the bar, Richie Goulding recognizes his brother-in-law's voice. The strained relationship between the two does not lessen his appreciation for Simon Dedalus's voice. Bloom asks Pat, the waiter, to set ajar the door of the bar (11.670). They all listen, are moved by the words, by the singing. As he plays with an elastic band he has been carrying in his pocket, Bloom mulls over tenors, Boylan’s visit to Molly and about the life of Simon Dedalus.
When he realizes that the song he is listening to is from the opera, Martha, Bloom thinks of Martha Clifford and the letter he got that morning from her.
Simon Dedalus's voice soars, and he is for them Lionel, the hero of the opera and to Bloom he has become Siopold (11.752): Simon + Lionel + Leopold (Bloom). Richie Goulding remembers his listening to Simon Dedalus singing ‘Twas rank and fame, an aria from the opera, The Rose of Castile, by Michael Balfe. Goulding’s comment that this is the grandest number in the whole opera (11.828), starts off Bloom's thoughts on numbers (Numbers it is. All music when you come to think (11.830).)
Not only Bloom and Richie Goulding but all the others present at that time in the Ormond Hotel listen to, appreciate and applaud Simon Dedalus's singing. The thirsty ones continue to drink. Bronze and gold continue to replenish the tankards. A little bit of flirting goes on. An extension of this harmless flirting is carried on to the dining room with Bloom's asking Pat for a pen and ink to write a reply to Martha. Of course he does not want to let Richie know what he is doing. So Bloom pretends that he is writing a business letter to the newspaper, Freeman's Journal.
The last reading stopped at: “pinnacles of gold.” (11.662)
Summary:
In the Ormond hotel saloon, Simon Dedalus and Father Cowley are with Ben Dollard, who is playing the piano. The three are also reminiscing about a past incidence at which Goodwin, a piano teacher, was playing the piano not so well and how Ben Dollard had to borrow a pair of trousers, albeit a pair too tight, from Bloom. (When they were living in Holles Street, Molly and Bloom collected and sold secondhand clothes and theatrical costumes.) Their talk moves to Molly, her looks, her parentage.
Bloom and Richie Goulding are having their dinner in the restaurant. Dinners fit for princes (11.523). While having dinner, Bloom's thoughts turn to Molly and to his conversation with her that morning. By sheer coincidence (or did he hear the music from the saloon and recognize the voices?) Bloom is also thinking of the night when he and Molly lent Dollard a dress suit for the concert. Thoughts of Molly make Bloom remember again the day the two had spent on the Howth. There is a very nice sentence here: We are their harps. I. He. Old. Young (11.582). Is Bloom thinking of how women (like Molly) play with men (like himself/old and like Boylan/young)?
More customers enter the Ormond bar. Urged by his friends to sing, Simon Dedalus declines at first. As they are discussing about the music, Boylan is jaunting jingly; Bloom and Goulding are having dinner.
The last reading stopped at: “eau de Nil.” (11.465)
Summary:
We should read this episode with much thought and care if we want to decipher and understand what Joyce is telling us here. It is similar to listening to a symphony and being able to pick out individual instruments, individual leitmotivs. An example is the following sentence: two sheets cream vellum paper one reserve two envelopes when I was in Wisdom Hely's wise Bloom in Daly's Henry Flower bought (11.295). This single sentence is composed of Bloom's interior monologue (when I was in Wisdom Hely's), of description of what Bloom is currently doing (he is buying two sheets cream vellum paper . . . two envelopes . . . in Daly's) and of echoes from earlier episodes (Henry Flower, Hely's).
On these pages, we first meet Lenehan who comes into the bar of the Ormond hotel looking for Boylan. But Lenehan is too small a fish to fry in the eyes of the two barmaids. The more he tries to get their attention, the cooler becomes their reaction. Failing with his overtures addressed to the sirens, he turns to Simon Dedalus, telling him about Stephen and their meeting MacHugh and O’Madden Burke in the newspaper office early that day. Even Simon Dedalus does not pay much attention to Lenehan, and moves to the saloon door, where there is a piano, recently tuned by a blind tuner, probably the same blind stripling we had met earlier in episodes 8 and 10. Meanwhile, Bloom crossing the bridge of Essex, remembers the letter he had received that morning from Martha, and decides to buy some writing paper to send a reply. Boylan also comes to the Ormond bar. At this point of the episode, Joyce has introduced a great mixture of interior monologue (mostly Bloom's) with what is actually happening (mostly with Boylan). Bloom, wanting to hide from Boylan, follows Richie Goulding into the dining room of the Ormond. They are served by Pat, a deaf (bothered) waiter. Bloom's caring character is revealed here in a few words. Though at first undecided, not wanting to make him walk twice (11.445), he orders a bottle of cider (11.447).
The reading stopped at "None nought said nothing. Yes."(11.224)
Summary:
Joyce not only gave the name Sirens to the 11th episode of Ulysses but also defined music as its art. Music is present here in various forms; not just in the terminology, songs, arie, references to musical instruments, choice of verbs used but equally prominently in the structure of the episode. There are fragments of sentences that resemble fragments of musical motives, leitmotivs. (Example: Imperthnthn thnthnthn (11.2).) Music also connects Joyce’s Ulysses to Homer’s Odyssey.
The previous episode ended with a recapitulating of the 'rocks' we had encountered wandering around Dublin. This episode starts, on the other hand, with 63 fragments of sentences. This part, serving as the introduction to the episode, is like the overture of a musical composition introducing leitmotivs that reoccur. It is fun to recognise them as one gets further into the episode.
The ‘concert hall’ is the bar of the Ormond hotel. The ‘concert’ begins at 4 pm. From the streets of Dublin encountered in Wandering Rocks, the previous episode, we have moved to the inside of the bar of the Ormond hotel. The major musicians here are the two barmaids - bronze-haired, Ms. Douce and gold-headed, Ms. Kennedy -, Lenehan, Boylan, Simon Dedalus, Father Cowley, Ben Dollard, and of course our Bloom!
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The reading stopped at "... Parliament street." (10.981)
Summary:
On this morning Tom Kernan is on his rounds to get orders for Tea. He has already secured an order for Pulbrook Robertson, his employer, and now he is talking to Mr Crimmins, a tea, wine and spirits merchant. After exchanging comments on the disaster of the ship, General Slocum, on the East River, in New York, the day before, and enjoying a thimbleful of his best gin before securing an order for Tea, Kernan continues on his way. Immersed in thoughts he misses a cavalcade that passes.
We soon meet Stephen. Where Stephen is, there is the talk of literature and philosophy. Classical literature, Greek philosophy. And here it has many echoes from earlier episodes. Passing on along the powerhouse and Clohissey's book shop, he stops to look at the books displayed on a cart when Dilly comes along. She has just spent a penny she got from her father and bought a coverless book on French grammar. Stephen, looking at her, thinks how she resembles him. He feels sorry for her but does not do anything to help his little sister.
Later we meet Simon Dedalus and Father Cowley. (We had met another “Father”, Father Conmee, earlier in the episode.) Father Cowley’s is another portrait of the poverty prevalent at the time in Dublin. He owes money to his landlord and others. So two men are at his back to make him pay. As Father Cowley has no way of paying off his debts, he is waiting for Ben Dollard, who he hopes will get these bailiffs off his back for a while.
Martin Cunningham and Mr Power are also out, as is John Wyse Nolan, who has a list of donations for Patrick Dignam's family. Bloom also enters the picture here though not in person. He had put his name down for five shillings (10.974). And had in fact put down [paid] the five shillings too (10.975). Seeing this, John Wyse Nolan quotes from act 1, scene 3rd of The Merchant of Venice, saying, “There is much kindness in the jew” (10.980). We realize then that this act of Bloom is acknowledged by others as a real kind one.
We also become here aware of new faces. Among these are Miss Kennedy and Miss Douce, whom we meet again in the Ormond hotel in Sirens, episode 11.
The last reading stopped at: “sister Monica!” (10.716)
Summary:
We meet on these pages many more Dubliners: Tom Rochford, Nosey Flynn, Lenehan, M'Coy, Bloom, Dilly and Simon Dedalus, among others.
We follow the conversation between Lenehan and M'Coy as they walk down Sycamore street. Of the two, Lenehan is the one who has many tales to tell. To start with, he is full of praise for Tom Rochford, who had once gone down a manhole to rescue a worker stuck inside. They think of the Gold cup horse race that was to take place that afternoon at Ascot Heath. Under Merchant's arch, they see a darkbacked figure scanning books on the hawker's cart (10.521). This glimpse of Mr Bloom inspires Lenehan to quote the song, Leopoldo or the Bloom is on the Rye. He also recites in great detail how once he had shared a ride late at night with Bloom and his wife after the annual dinner at Glencree reformatory. Lenehan's description of how every jolt the bloody car gave had her bumping up against (10.558) him leaves M'Coy unmoved damping Lenehan's spirits.
We also observe how our Bloom turns over idly pages of many books in a shabby bookshop before deciding to buy for Molly the book, Sweets of Sin for Molly.
We see Dilly Dedalus waiting for her father in front of Dillon's auction rooms. We had known from an earlier scene with Katey, Maggy and Boody Dedalus that Dilly had gone to meet their father. Dilly wants to get some money from him. When Simon Dedalus finally turns up there, he tries at first to distract Dilly from her intentions. On being asked directly whether he got any money, he tells her, “There is no-one in Dublin would lend me fourpence (10.669).” But Dilly is an old hand at this game. She manages to extract a shilling and two pennies from her father. Simon Dedalus, not charmed by his daughter's insistence, walks off, murmuring to himself. After he hands over two copper pennies to Dilly, telling her, “Get a glass of milk for yourself and a bun or something (10.706)”, and walks muttering to himself about little nuns ... little sister Monica (10.716) - a reference to Sz. Monica's almshouse -, the viceregal cavalcade passes.
(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)
The last reading stopped at: “after five.” (10.396)
Summaries provided on this site are written by Chandra Holm. Please note that no summary will be posted this week. Thank you for your understanding!
The last reading stopped at: “smiled tinily, sweetly.” (10.127)
Summary: