Where did the last reading stop?

For updates about the readings please refer to the entries on our Thursday Ulysses page.

Thank you for your interest.

Online reading, Thursday, 18 August 2022

Dear fellow readers of Ulysses by James Joyce

Today, we reached the last sentence of Ulysses: " ... his heart was going like mad and es I said yes I will Yes."

This means that we have finished the current cycle of reading Joyce's great work.  I have been participating in the reading groups since September 2011. Attending the reading groups and getting to know James Joyce's novel under the guidance of the one and the only, Fritz Senn, has enriched my life in many ways. 

This cycle of Ulysses will be the last time I will participate regularly in the reading group and write summaries of what would be read. I have been writing summaries since September 2013. (Yes, I did miss writing them the last two weeks.) I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the summaries, which I have also used as the basis for writing my eBook, Ulysses for the Uninitiated that is still available to be bought on Apple Books. With this post, I shall stop writing the summaries. The blog will still be active for the future reading groups as a site of virtual bookmarks.

I will end this post with a link to a brilliant article on Ulysses. Do read it now or at least before you restart reading Ulysses by James Joyce.

One Thinks of Homer: Oliver St John Gogarty and James Joyce

Greetings

Chandra

Online reading, 28 July 2022 (18.1313)

 The reading stopped at ". . .  wait by God . . . " (18.1313)

Note:

- There will be no reading next week on 4th August 2022.

- Reading of Penelope, episode 18, will resume on 11th August 2022 at regular time.

Summary will be posted in a couple of days!

Online reading, 21 July 2022 (18.1148)

 The reading stopped at ". . .  down at Lahore . . . " (18.1148)

Summary:

Though Bloom, Boylan and others enter and disappear from Molly's thoughts, it is Milly who occupies most of her mother's mind on these pages. Molly muses about her relationship with her daughter, the stormy time both went through when she was still at home, and how alike both are. Molly guesses that it was on account of her and Boylan that Bloom sent Milly away to Mullingar to work in a photo atelier. In a way she is even jealous of the intimacy between Bloom and Milly even though she knows that it would be to the mother Milly would turn if she has any problem.

Meanwhile without stating it explicitly, Molly has moved to the chamber pot, where she notices that her periods have started. She is glad that he didnt make her pregnant as big as he is but O how the waters come down at Lahore . . . 

Online reading, 14 July 2022 (18.953)

Stopped at " . . . bee bit him . . ." (18.953)

Summary:

Apart from Molly's musings about Mulvey and how she used to entice him (her blouse was open for his last day), these pages contain multiple hints to Molly and Bloom's financial situation. For instance, while musing about her boyfriends, imagining what her last name would have been if she had married Mulvey and deciding that having Bloom as her last name is better than having Breen, Molly, feeling some wind insider her - just as Bloom did at the end of Sirens, episode 11 - wishes for even a bath itself of her own room, at least own bed so that she would not have to feel his cold feet on her. Releasing the wind in pianissimo, Molly wonders whether it was the pork chop that caused it and decides to buy a nice piece of cod in the morning. She does not like eels because of their bones and she is sick of that everlasting butchers meat from Buckleys. 

There are also typical Molly-spellings on these pages: Vatican instead of viaticum, 18 carrot gold instead of 18 carat gold, consumption instead of consummation, place instead of plaice . . .  

Online reading, 7 July 2022 (18.747)

The reading stopped at " . . . bottom of the ashpit." (18.747)

Summary:

At this point, Molly is mainly concerned about female and male anatomy, love making, her earlier life in Gibraltar and her loneliness in Dublin.

She thinks of her breasts in particular and breasts in general (curious the way its made 2 the same in case of twins theyre supposed to represent beauty . . .) In any case, it is obvious that Molly does not care much for the anatomy of the male either (they hide it with a cabbageleaf . . .) Still she feels as if she is on fire and can hardly wait for Monday when Boylan is supposed to visit her again. 

Molly fondly remembers the Stanhope couple she was friends with while she lived in Gibraltar. Mrs Stanhope had given her books such as Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, East Lynne as well as The Shadow of Ashlydyat by Mrs Henry Wood and many more. Mr Stanhope, who was older than his wife was also awfully fond of Molly. After they left Gibraltar, Molly was quite lonely. She thinks of the letter she had got from Mrs Stanhope and her sending a frock from Paris. Molly feels quite lonely in Dublin too. So lonely that she posts letters to herself, letters containing only bits of paper in them. When frseeeeeeeefronnnng, the whistling sound of a train interferes her thoughts, Molly wonders about the poor men that have to be out all the night from their wives and families in those roasting engines . . . In this she comes across as quite a sympathetic person, caring, like Bloom, for people in unenviable.

Online reading, 30 June 2022 (18.534)

 The reading stopped at " . . . Im sure you were . . . " (18.534)

Summary:

Molly's stream of thoughts we read about on these pages focus mainly on her sexual exploits (Bloom, Boylan, her former boy friends like Gardner in Gibraltar, the incidence in the carriage while on the way home from the Glencree dinner), on her figure, on her singing talent and as well as on the limits imposed on her life by their financial situation.

She recalls an evening she spent with Bloom (before their marriage) when she should have been at home getting dinner for her father. She thinks of her upcoming trip to Belfast with Boylan, her shopping expeditions there with him (...  it would be exciting going round with him shopping buying those things in a new city ...). She does know that she could get into trouble going alone with Boylan (... they might bell it round the town in their papers or tell the papers ...) but could not care less about such gossiping people (... O let them all go and smother themselves for the fat lot I care ...) She would like kidfitting corsets to reduce flesh because as she says her belly is a bit too big. Molly too has had enough of the restrictions brought on their life due to lack of money (I always want to throw a handful of tea in the pot measuring and mincing ...). 

In the early hours of the morning, lying awake in bed next to a sleeping husband, Molly ruminates on these and various other things . . .

Online reading, 23 June 2022 (18.306)

 The reading stopped at " . . . waistcoat pocket . . . " (18.306)

Summary:

In this part of episode 18, famously known as the Penelope episode, quite a bit is about having sex. Molly comes across as being quite modern, quite uninhibited, something that is remarkable during the early 20th century Catholic Dublin. Her thoughts turn to God, church, soul - and Bloom's scoffing at the idea of the existence of the soul - and naturally to Boylan. She thinks of their first encounter. After having spent the afternoon with him, she gives a detailed description of Boylan's anatomy. Her reminiscence of the afternoon end with the thought, nice invention they made for women for him to get all the pleasure but if someone gave them a touch of it themselves theyd know . . . , which refers to the pains of child birth. She remembers too the days of her courtship with Bloom, how he had given her a book by Byron and three pairs of gloves as gifts and how he used to beg her to give him a tiny bit cut off (from her) drawers, .... 

Online reading, 2 June 2022 (17.2194)

The reading stopped at "... inevitable, irreparable." (17.2194)

Summary:

From reminiscences of his father, Bloom's thoughts move on to a consideration of departing from Dublin and moving elsewhere, and then to thinking of forces that would render departure undesirable . . . He thinks of everything that had happened to him - albeit in reverse order -that day. But Ulysses would not have been Ulysses if Joyce had resisted the temptation of adding a rich layer to these seemingly banal events. Adding words in parentheses to the events of the day, Joyce transforms the day into a quasi-schematic Jewish liturgical calendar.

Finally Bloom enters the bedroom where his attention is immediately caught by new clean bedlinen, additional odours, the presence of a human form, female, hers, the imprint of a human form, male not his, . . . This observation leads to a long list of Molly's admirers, potential occupants of her bed, starting with Mulvey, whom she had known in Gibraltar, and ending with Boylan, who had occupied her bed that very afternoon. Bloom feels envy, jealousy, abnegation, equanimity at the thought of his having been the last occupant of the bed.

The paragraph that describes why/how Bloom feels equanimity is for me one of the most wonderful paragraphs of the novel. These reflections/descriptions elevate Bloom (the eternal outsider, the person who in many ways is quite naive, the one to whom people hardly listen to, the one who truly cares not only for Stephen but also for a Mrs. Purefoy in labour, the one who cares more for science than for nationalism, . . .) to a special level, differentiating him from ordinary mortals! The adultery Molly commits with Boylan is for Bloom an act that is very natural, that is more than inevitable. He reflects on various kinds of crimes that one could commit, that are more heinous than adultery in the world.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 19 May 2022 (17.1895)

The reading stopped at "... beliefs and practices." (17.1895)

Summary:

Bloom not only dreams of possessing a fine mansion but also about how much he should pay for it and how to collect the sum of money needed to pay for it. The list of rapid but insecure means he imagines, which will make it possible to purchase the Flowerville immediately is to be read to be enjoyed. He thinks too of a number of practical ideas - some big, some small - which could lead to his amassing wealth. Reclamation of dunams of waste arenary soil, utilization of waste paper, are just two of the ideas. Why on earth would Bloom think of such things at this early morning hour after a very long day? Because, he knows that meditating on such topics would help him to sleep. He had learnt that a man who would live for 70 years spends 20 of them sleeping! 

While busy with thoughts, Bloom unlocks a drawer. The drawer holds an assortment of things: a copybook, a Christmas card, mementoes of his parents, letters from Martha, envelopes and notepaper two partly uncoiled rubber preservatives as well as 2 erotic photocards purchased by post from Box 32, P. O., Charing Cross, London, W. C., 1 prospectus of The Wonderworker, the world's greatest remedy for rectal complaints. The prospectus was addressed to Mrs. L. Bloom, the enclosed note starting with Dear Madam.

The second drawer contains many important documents including the birth certificate of Leopold Paula Bloom and an envelope addressed: To My Dear Son Leopold. Seeing the envelope sent to him by his father makes Bloom think of his father, an old man, widower, unkempt of hair, in bed, with head covered, sighing: an infirm dog, Athos. (The name of Odysseus’s dog was Argos. It was so infirm by the time Odysseus finally reached home that all it could do as it saw the master was to wag its tail before dropping dead.) He also feels a bit of remorse because in his young days he (Bloom) had viewed certain beliefs and practices (of his father) with disrespect. 

Online reading, Thursday, 12 May 2022 (17.1614)

The reading stopped at " . . . Kingstown for England." (17.1614) 

Summary:

The style of the episode still follows that of catechism with the answers taking off and getting a life of their own, often forgetting the question that was posed in the first place! 

As we read on, we come to know the gifts Bloom and Molly received at their wedding and the various books* Bloom has collected. Observing these various objects displayed in the living room, Bloom feels quite happy. 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 Oxen of the Sun, episode 14). Odysseus also had a scar, above his knees, caused by a wild boar. That is how his old nurse, Eurycleia, could recognize him when he returned home after 20 years.

Bloom empties his pockets and takes out, and puts back, a silver coin he has had with him since the funeral of Mrs Emily Sinico**. At this point we are presented with Bloom's budget, albeit incomplete, for the previous day. We are not sure whether this list is actually written down, whether Bloom just thinks about the items. 

What follows is the description of Bloom's ambitions. Two full pages follow detailing the kind of house (to be named Bloom Cottage or Saint Leopold's or Flowerville)  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 his garden, the various implements he would keep, and so on. He continues to dream of the improvements he will introduce to his grounds, how he will commute to the city, the  intellectual pursuits and recreations both in summer and winter he could engage in. . . 

*The library at the Zurich James Joyce Foundation has copies of most of these books except for The Hidden Life of Christ. Note that a different book but with the same title was published in 2011.

** Mrs Sinico is familiar to the readers of Dubliners, Joyce's collection of short stories.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 5 May 2022 (17.1332)

The reading stopped at ". . .  oriental incense." (17.1332)

Summary:

After Bloom suggests that Stephen should sleep that night in his house, and after the offer is politely refused, both of them go out of the house and into the garden. In the garden they witness the spectacle of starry night (heaventree). Here Joyce makes full use of his intention of making this episode, Ithaca, a mathematico-astronomico-physico-mechanico- geometrico-chemico sublimation of Bloom and Stephen. Under the heavenly stars, Bloom is in his elements. He talks of stars, of planets and their features, of constellations, of evolution, of the geographical history of the earth, and so on. He has problems with believing in a redeemer, with the idea of redemption. According to him the minor was proved by the major. In other words, redemption is doubtful. The major premise of Bloom's answer: humanoid existence on other planets is possible, but if it exists, it will be human and therefore vain. The minor premise: since vain, redemption would be doubtful (Gifford, 17.1102).

Bloom does not believe in any heaven. For him it is rather like the Utopia, the imaginary island of Thomas More. He does not also believe in the influence of these heavenly bodies on the disasters that happen here on earth. But he is quite aware of the aesthetic beauty of what he and Stephen are observing.

By then the dim light of a paraffin lamp in the second story of the house attracts their attention. This visible splendid sign hints at an invisible attractive person. There are two allusions here: the first to the meeting between Cato and Dante and Virgil as they approach the Mount of Purgatory; the second to the Ceremony of Sacrament as the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual Grace. Molly as Beatrice. Molly as Mary.

At Stephen's suggestion both of them urinate. We are told about the trajectories they reach now and reached as kids. . . . Finally Bloom opens the garden door, shakes Stephen's hands, who then leaves. Right at that moment, the bells of the nearby Church of Saint George chime. The sound makes Stephen think of the prayer recited at his mother's deathbed whereas Bloom hears in the chime, Heigho, heigho, just as he had heard them that morning as he came out of the outdoor toilet.

Stephen leaves. Bloom, all alone, feels the cold of the interstellar space. He thinks of many of his comrades who are no more. He crosses the garden, reenters the passage, goes up the stairs. As he goes into the front room, he hits his head against the walnut sideboard, which, in his absence, has been rearranged along with other furniture. He experiences different kinds of emotions as he observes the current state of the furniture in the room.

Bloom then takes out an incense cone igniting it, fumigates the room in which Boylan has been, just like Odysseus fumigates his palace after the suitors have been killed.

(Excerpted from Ulysses for the Uninitiated)

Online reading, Thursday, 21 April 2022 (17.1082)

Note: As Fritz Senn is abroad, there will be no on-line reading of Ulysses on Thursday, 28 April 2022.

The reading will continue at usual time on Thursday, 5 May 2022.

The last reading stopped at " . . .  its powers." (17.1082)

Online reading, Thursday, 14 April 2022 (17.794)

The reading stopped at " . . . exponent of Shakespeare." (17.794)

Summary:

Bloom and Stephen continue to discuss about factors that separate them. Though neither of them openly talk about their racial differences, a question that arises here is whether Bloom is indeed a Jew. Though the Dubliners in this novel regard him as one, he may not be so theoretically at least as his mother was Ellen Higgins, her name suggesting that she was not a Jew. Furthermore, Bloom has been baptised, not once but thrice! 

Exploring further their 'differences', they recite fragments of verses to each other: Stephen reciting lines from an Irish ballad, and Bloom from the Song of Solomon 4.3. They write down alphabets, with Stephen writing down Irish characters and Bloom Hebrew ones. Their summing up of each other has biblical overtones. It is also possible that Bloom, the eternal father, is searching for the eternal son, and has reached the end of his search in Stephen.

Online reading, Thursday 7 April 2022 (17.539)

The reading stopped at " ... (born Grier)." (17.539)

Summary:

The salient part of the pages read in this session has to do with the minute examination of the four forces - name, age, race and creed - that separate Bloom from Stephen. It takes more than four pages of examination to reach the end of the discourse on the consequences of the difference in their age. And neither of them openly allude to their racial differences. All that we know is that he thought that he thought that he was a jew whereas he knew that he knew that he knew that he was not.

Online reading, Thursday, 31 March 2022 (17.253)

 The reading stopped at ". . . abandonment and recuperation." (17.253)

Summary: 

Ithaca, the penultimate episode of Ulysses, describes actual homecoming. It is 2 a.m. Concerned about where Stephen will find a place to sleep that night, Bloom is taking him home to No. 7, Eccles Street.

Ithaca, could not have differed more in style from Eumaeus, the previous episode. In fact, with each episode, Joyce opens up new vistas of style. Here it resembles the style of catechism, a series of fixed questions, answers or precepts used for instruction. Just look at two examples: the first with which the episode starts: What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning?, and again one that appears later: What in water did Bloom, Waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrzer, returning to the range, admire? Throughout the episode, longish explanations are given as answers to the questions raised. Everything that is talked about, seen and felt is categorized, listed, everything is treated in an ordered manner. These categories/lists are (this order is) presented in such a way as to render that all the topics look as if they are of equal importance. It feels as if the episode is trying to get back control of what has been missing, and to make up for the looseness and laxness of the previous one. But, again, though the effort seems to defeat its purpose, though conciseness and precision seem to get sacrificed, this style adds to the richness of the experience of reading Ulysses.

Online reading, Thursday, 24 March 2022 (End of episode 16)

 With today's reading, Eumaeus, episode 16 came to an end.

Summary:

At this late hour (it is past midnight) Bloom wants to invite Stephen to spend the night at his home in Eccles street but wonders how to formulate his invitation. After mature reflection, Bloom tells Stephen, "As it's rather stuffy here you just come home with me and talk things over."

Outside, their talk turns to music. Stephen, who has been rather silent, loosens up a little. Still the two continue to talk at cross purposes. Bloom wants to show that he knows something about the topic, Stephen talks without explaining or caring whether he is understood. 

Soon Bloom and Stephen have to stop for an old horse which is dragging a sweeper on the road. Bloom feels sorry for it and wishes he had a lump of sugar. The horse deposits three smoking globes of turds on the road. At this point, a shift in perspective occurs and the scene is perceived from the driver of the horse cart, who, though he can not hear what they are saying, watches the two men walking away side by side. Bloom and Stephen walk, stop for a while, continue to walk and to talk, linked in companionship but apart from each other mentally. 

Online reading, Thursday 17 March 2022 (16.1642)

 The reading stopped at ". . . the county Sligo." (16.1642)

Summary:

Bloom's thoughts have been revolving around the scandal, the court case, and how finally it brought Parnell down. The evidence produced in the court during the divorce case filed by the husband was the usual affectionate letters that passed between them full of sweet nothings. 

Though he will try again to start in earnest a conversation with Stephen, at this moment thoughts rise in Bloom's mind about the eternal question of the life connubial. Can real love, supposing there happens to be another chap in the case, exist between married folk? (There is obviously another chap in his own marriage. Through out the day, Bloom has been doing his utmost to suppress thinking about this chap.) It is thoughts like these that make Bloom a very likeable person.

Online reading, Thursday, 3 March 2022 (16.1357)

Important note: There will be no online reading of Ulysses on Thursday, 10 March 2022.

The reading stopped at ". . . a cottonball one." (16.1357)

Summary:

Bloom continues to try to make conversation with Stephen by talking of Jews and their contribution to the British society, Turks, Islam, patriotism. . . . Stephen is not interested in any of it. Over his unstable apology for a cup of coffee, listening to this synopsis of things in general, Stephen stare[s] at nothing in particular. Having been discouraged by Stephen's lack of interest, Bloom falls silent. As his mind gets busy with a variety of thoughts he notices the pink edition extra sporting of the Telegraph lying there. His eyes run over many captions till he arrives at a note on Patrick Dignam's funeral. The note that must have been written by Hynes talks about what a genial personality Dignam was, and goes on to list the names of people who attended the funeral that morning. The list contains many errors. Not only has Bloom become L. Boom, it also mentions that Stephen Dedalus B. A. was at the funeral, when actually he was not there. Stephen is interested in finding out whether the letter, which he brought that morning to the newspaper has been printed. It has been. While Stephen reads the letter printed on page two, Bloom reads on page three about the horse race in which Throwaway was the winner and on page four about the Slocum Disaster. Then at this late hour in the cabman's shelter moves to the Irish Nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891). Skin-the-Goat's comment that the husband of Katherine O'Shea (who had a long affair with Parnell & married him later), was a cottonball one, makes Bloom think of that scandal, of the court case, and how finally it brought Parnell down.

Online reading, Thursday, 24 February 2022 (16.1118)

The reading stopped at ". . .  in case they." (16.1118)

Summary:
The sailor continues to be loquacious. Though actually not much happens at this late hour in the cabman's shelter, many different topics are touched upon: Bloom compares the women of Italy with those of Ireland (to the latter's disadvantage), mentions that he was in the Kildare street museum earlier in the day, where he was impressed by the splendid proportions of hips, bosom. The sailor goes out to have a swig out of the flasks in his pocket and to relieve himself, while the other customers of the cabman's shelter talk of ships, ship wrecks, and the sorry state of the Irish shipping industry. This inspires the keeper, Skin-the-Goat, assuming he was he, who has his own axe to grind, to sing the glory of Ireland, and to proclaim that Ireland will be the Achilles heel of England. His advice to every Irishman [is]: stay in the land of your birth and work for Ireland and live for Ireland. Ireland, Parnell said, could not spare a single one of her sons.
Bloom clearly does not agree with all this rhetoric. He tells Stephen, recalling the scene with the citizen earlier, how he had heard not so long before the same identical lingo, and how he simply but effectually silenced the offender. He says - in the typical manner in which we have come to know how Bloom speaks, confusing issues, - “He called me a jew . . . So I without deviating from plain facts in the least told him his God, I mean Christ, was a jew too and all his family like me though in reality I'm not.” (The question of whether Bloom is a Jew or not, discussed in an episode that seems to keep asking “What is reality?” is ingenious.)
Remembering this earlier incident with the citizen in the pub, Bloom makes, what is perhaps the most important statement on these pages in this episode. He says: “I resent violence or intolerance in any shape or form.” “It's a patent absurdity on the face of it to hate people because they live round the corner and speak another vernacular, in the next house so to speak.”
Stephen continues to be reticent.

Online Reading, Thursday, 10 February 2022 (16.538)

The reading stopped at ". . . Brown, Robinson and Co." (16.538)

Summary:

The main happening on these pages is Bloom's entering with Stephen the cabman's shelter, where their presence soon attracts a sailor, who introduces himself as D. B. Murphy, of Carrigaloe. He spins many stories, chief among them being his meeting Simon Dedalus, who toured the wide world with Hengler's Royal Circus. He also says that he docked just that morning after seven years at sea, and that his little woman is waiting for him at home. Like Bloom, our own Odysseus, the sailor too is on his way home though neither of them is in a hurry to get there!

Online reading, Thursday, 3 February 2022 (16.259)

 The reading stopped at "Why?" (16.259)

Summary:

Episode 15, Eumaeus, is the first episode of the last book consisting of 3 episodes in Joyce's Ulysses. It is the first of the three homecoming episodes. It is also one of the wittiest episodes of the novel. The style of writing Joyce uses here - with lots of cliches, many idioms and proverbs, long-winded sentences -  takes us on a literary ride in which he demonstrates how to write something that in a way is pompous and rambles quite a bit. The result is that one is hardly ever sure, if what one is reading in a sentence is quite as it sounds.

It is 1 am. After having rescued Stephen from the soldiers and the police, Bloom is taking him home as he thinks that Stephen has no place to sleep that night after having been deserted by Mulligan and Haines at the Westland Row station. Both are tired after a very long day. Stephen, quite drunk, is slowly sobering up. Bloom is not drunk but is obviously utterly exhausted.

Stephen wants to drink something. As there is no water pump in the vicinity, Bloom suggests that they go by the cabman's shelter, where they might get something to drink in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. As they are both tired, Bloom thinks of getting a vehicle, provided one is available. But as they cannot find one, they continue on foot.

The events on the way underscore the difference in the characters of the two men. As  Stephen thinks of Ibsen (an echo of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Bloom is busy enjoying the smell of freshly baked goods at James Rourke's city bakery. Bloom talks and talks, trying to make Stephen aware of the dangers of nighttown, the consequences of drinking, and of being friends with those who desert him. Bloom does admit that he himself relishes a glass of choice old wine in season. . . still never beyond a certain point. Bloom talks,  Stephen is silent . . .

Info about 2.2.2022, the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses

 A special information:

As you surely know, the literary world will be celebrating on 2.2.2022 the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses, the icon of Modern literature. The Zurich Joyce Foundation has announced a variety of events. Details are available on the website of the Foundation. 

Many a newspaper/magazine has carried articles in the past few days on this milestone. Some of the interesting articles are: 
1. "Dangerous, voyeuristic, transgressive, exciting: Anne Enright on James Joyce's Ulysses at 100", The Guardian, 29 January 2022
2. "Wer hat Angst vor Joyce?", Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag, 29 Januar 2022, S. 61
3. "In a Word . . . Ulysses", Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, 29 January 2022

Additional events of interest:
1. The Washington DC Public Library is hosting the virtual event, "Ulysses - A Conversation with Ambassador Dan Mulhall" that will be streamed on YouTube. Details here.
Watch the video of this highly interesting conversation here.
2. Details about the number of events planned by RTE, Ireland's National Public Service Media, are available here.
3. The bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach, was instrumental in getting Ulysses published on 2.2.1922. To commemorate the event, Friends of Shakespeare and Company are bringing out podcasts of the reading of Ulysses. These are available freely on the sites where you listen to podcasts. The first episode will be available on 2.2.2022 and the last on 16.6.2022, this year's Bloomsday.
4. Watch a short video on Sylvia Beach about publishing James Joyce's Ulysses here.
5. BBC Radio 3 will also be broadcasting short talks, starting tonight at 22.45 with Anne Enright reading from Telemachus. Readings from many other writers will follow. Details are here.

Of course, the book, Ulysses for the Uninitiated, is meant for those who want to try to read Joyce's masterpiece but are hesitant because they have heard/read that this is a difficult book to read! Oh, how much they miss!!

Online reading, Thursday, 27 January 2022 (End of episode 15)

Today's reading reached the end of Circe, episode 15.

Summary:

Outside the brothel, Stephen has got into altercation with two soldiers. One of them, Private Carr rushes at Stephen, striking him in the face. Bloom is trying to get Stephen away from the scene, when two policemen arrive. Soon Corny Kelleher also arrives in a hackney. With the help of Kelleher, Bloom manages to get rid of the police. Kelleher, who thinks of giving a ride to Stephen, gives up the idea when he hears that Stephen lives far away in Sandycove. Even the horse that is pulling the hackney wants to go hohohohome.

Things start to quieten down. So far the episode was brimming with people, sometimes in reality, more often in fantasy. Now only two are left: Bloom and Stephen. Stephen is still lying on the ground. Bloom tries to wake him up, calling his name. In his muddled up state, Stephen wakes up murmuring black panther (Telemachus, episode 1), vampire (Proteus, episode 3), and singing words of the poem Who goes with Fergus by W. B. Yeats (Telemachus, episode 1). Bloom, on hearing the words - Fergus now, shadows, the woods, . .  . dim sea - thinks that Stephen is thinking of a girl named Ferguson.

Again suddenly we are back in the world of fantasy. Against the dark wall a figure appears slowly , a fairy boy of eleven,  . . . dressed in an Eton suit with glass shoes like Cinderella and a little bronze helmet. On his suit he has diamond and ruby buttons. He is carrying a slim ivory cane. It is Rudy, Bloom's deceased son. Bloom had once imagined that his son will walk one day beside Molly in an Eton suit. (In the language of gems, the diamond has the power of making men courageous and magnanimous and of protecting them from evil spirits. Ruby is symbolic of a cheerful mind, and it works as a preservative of health and as an amulet against poison, sadness, and evil thoughts; Gifford, 15.4965-66). The bronze helmet, the ivory cane and lambkin hint that Rudy appears in the role of Hermes (Mercury).

All this symbolism brings together on one hand Homer's Odyssey and Joyce's Ulysses. When Odysseus approaches Circe's palace, he is stopped by Hermes. Here Hermes appears when our Odysseus leaves Circe's palace. On the other hand, the appearance of Rudy shows that Stephen is a potential son of Bloom. Seeing Rudy, all the paternal protective instinct is awakened in Bloom. The last part of Ulysses will deal with what happens to this father - son duo. For us, readers, reading this episode has been, to put it extremely mildly, an interesting, although pretty bewildering, literary journey.

Online reading, Thursday, 20 January 2022 (15.4660)

The reading stopped with "On fire, on fire!" (15.4660)

We are nearing the end of the current episode. Stephen has run out of Bella Cohen's brothel. Bloom pacifies Bella and paying for the chandelier damaged by Stephen, runs after him, finding him outside, having got into trouble with two British soldiers, Private Carr and Private Compton.

In another bout of fantasy, many characters we had met earlier reappear: The citizen (Cyclops, episode 12), the croppy boy (Sirens, episode 11), Rumbold, demon barber (there he was master barber; Cyclops, episode 12), Patrice and Kevin Egan (Proteus, episode 3), Edward the Seventh and even a composite character named aptly Don Emile Patrizio Franz Rupert Pope Hennessy!

And there is a lot of Irish history on these pages. For example, the song the citizen sings (15.4525) is not only a parody of a 1830 song but is also a reference to the trial of two Sinn Feiners in 1921. The ballad, Croppy Boy, which is about the 1798 Irish uprising, crops up again (15.4534). Irish expatriates such as Kevin Egan are also part of the scene. The most important of all the figures that appear is that of Old Gummy Granny. She, the old woman, who is Ireland itself, appears when the heads of the assembled women - Kitty, Biddy, etc - coalesce. But old Gummy Granny has all the typical attributes - toadstool, sugarloaf hat - of the Irish fairy. Stephen recognizes her.

Online reading, Thursday, 13 January 2022 (15.4259)

The reading stopped at "After him!" (15.4259) 

Summary:

We feel on these pages quite bewildered at first, till we realize that the various happenings we see here are really echoes of earlier episodes. Not only do we meet many characters we had met earlier (and whom we do not expect to meet in the brothel) - Simon Daedalus (episode 5), Mr Deasy (episode 2), Maginni, the dance teacher (episode 10), Professor Goodwin, the piano teacher (episode 4), Buck Mulligan and finally Stephen's dead mother (episode 1) - but we also witness bracelets and hours of the day acquiring voices, and we encounter, in the brothel, scenes of fox hunting as well as horse racing! It looks as if Stephen is also hallucinating just as Bloom did earlier.

When Zoe asks Stephen to give them some parleyvoo, he starts off in great style, talking supposedly like how a Frenchman talks in English, when out of the blue he says, “I dreamt of a watermelon.” This is an echo of episode 3, in which Stephen on the Sandymount strand thinks of a dream he dreamt the previous night. According to Gifford*, melons are also the fruits the children of Israel long for in their wanderings. 

The atmosphere turns gay with Professor Goodwin playing the piano, and dance steps being called out by the dance teacher, Professor Maginni to the song, My girl is a Yorkshire girl. Stephen, who starts to dance with Zoe, Florry is admonished by his father to think of his mother's people.

The word, mother, is the cue to what follows. Stephen's mother is dead. So naturally, he, while dancing, thinks of the dance of death.  Stephen's mother, emaciated, rises stark through the floor like a ghost. We are back on top of the Martello tower (episode 1). With Buck Mulligan. Now in a jester’s dress of puce and yellow. And instead of bearing a bowl of lather, he is carrying a smoking buttered split scone. Stephen is still smarting at Mulligan's saying, "She’s beastly dead." He is also full of remorse at not having fulfilled his mother’s wish for prayer at her deathbed. His mother’s ghost does not make it easier for him and asks him to repent. He does not. He will not serve, and says, "Non serviam!"

The circle is complete. With an episode ending the middle section of Ulysses, we are back at the beginning of the novel.

* See Ulysses Annotated by Gifford, 1989, Univ. of California Press, P. 61, 3.367-69

Online reading, Thursday, 6 January 2022 (15.3836)

The reading stopped at " ... after his death..." (15.3836)

Summary*

By this time, we, the readers, have more or less got used to the 'craziness' - rather, the incredible creativity of Joyce - we experience in this episode. If we want to thoroughly appreciate Joyce's creativity, we need to remember almost every word we have so far read in the book. We need to be prepared for inanimate objects (yews, waterfalls) and animals (staggering bob, nanny goat, black liz), for deceased persons (Shakespeare, Virag), mythical persons (nymph) and persons who are really are not part of the gathering (Boylan, Councillor Nannetti, Father Dolan, John Conmee, Marion aka Molly, Mina Kennedy, Lydia Douce, The boots) to spring into the conversation. We also need to recognise the clues that lead to the 'appearance' (and quick disappearance) of objects and persons amongst the people gathered in Bella Cohen's brothel. (For instance, Shakespeare makes an appearance when Lynch says, "The mirror up to nature" that is a saying in Hamlet; Father Dolan appears when Lynch mentions pandybat, which in itself a reference to Joyce's earlier work The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.)  We need to discern how in this episode fantasy (the conversation between the nymph and Bloom) intermingles with reality (Bloom asking Zoe to give him back the potato that was a relic of his mamma) and to learn to distinguish between the two.

*Please note that the posting of summaries which had to be discontinued in September 2021 will resume from this week.