Okay, so recently I visited a little book shop in Camden and came across a mountain of a book. Yes, indeed it was ‘Ulysses’. I’d heard the name of this novel thrown around a lot- mainly because I’d been visiting hoards of universities and at most of them, a whole module on it is offered. So, I thought it must be quite a literary giant and, as I’m interested in literature I thought what a great idea it would be to buy it. Of course, I did not know before I bought it and before I even started reading it that it actually was such a mountain of a book. ‘Ulysses’ isn’t a mountain because of it’s length. It’s a mountain because of it’s content. It is a serious, sheer-faced challenge, but it is one that excites me.
I won’t be offering elaborate analysis on the novel but I’m going to basically be sharing my feelings on reading certain sections, what I’ve found difficult to grasp and what has really captured me. I’d thought I’d start by discussing the author a little, however, so here goes:
James Joyce, born in 1882, grew up in Dublin. His father, John Joyce, attended Queen’s College in Cork and but didn’t graduate. Although Joyce’s father was from a fairly prosperous background, by the time Joyce was twelve the family was led into poverty due to numerous mortgages, the size of the family and their lack of any remaining land. Therefore, Joyce was taken out of his boarding school, Clongowes Wood College, in 1892 as his father could no longer pay the fees. Despite this, Joyce was a bright student and eventually studied at University College, Dublin. He encountered many experiences growing up which helped to shape his ideas and therefore, his works. This included the Roman Catholic Church, Latin classes, modern languages and Irish nationalism, the latter of which being emphasised through the fact that he lived at a time when the Irish felt unrepresented in the British government, thereby coming together to create some idea of a value consensus. Regardless of the patriotism of the Irish, Joyce sought to be culturally cosmopolitan. He studied Ibsen’s plays and published an essay on the play ‘When We Dead Awaken’ in the Fortnightly Review.
Joyce’s works are thought to be somewhat autobiographical as many events and aspects of Joyce’s upbringing are brought up and recalled in many of his texts and indeed, some claim that there are similarities between himself and the character of Leopold Bloom, a protagonist of ‘Ulysses’. He was passionately supported by many authors and artists at the time whom celebrated his works, Ezra Pound especially helped Joyce by fund-raising for him and assisting him when it came to publication. Thanks to generous patronage, his family -his wife, Nora and their two children, Lucia and Giorgio- had a comfortable life in the 1930s, where they lived in Paris. Joyce spent most of his adult life abroad, moving back and forth between Ireland and France and escaping to Switzerland during both wars, explaining the culturally diverse feel to many of his works.
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