The action in James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place on a single day in Dublin, Ireland--June 16, 1904. It is said that that day marked James Joyce's first outing with his future wife, Nora Barnacle. In the book, the protagonist is Leopold Bloom (his wife is Molly Bloom). Ulysses may be the great novel written in the English language; it may well be the greatest unread novel in English, along with Moby Dick.
It is a great book even if not the most accessible. The final chapter of Ulysses is a wonderful lyrical love poem, the poem of "Yes." (Read it to find out what I mean.)
There are events celebrating Bloomsday all over the world (and the day has been celebrated beginning in 1954, the 50th anniversary of June 16, 1904). One event going on in Cleveland is a marathon reading of Ulysses at Nighttown, the great pub of Brendan Ring in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Of course Brendan's pub is named after the redlight district of Dublin that James Joyce knew and featured in his novel.
There was a nice article on the Nighttown reading of Ulysses that appeared in the Plain Dealer, the storyt is available at cleveland.com at this link:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/06/fans_of_irish_writer_james_joy.html
To your memory and artistry, James Joyce. Slainte!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
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1 comment:
Nice blog, fellow North Coaster!
I am putting Ulysses on my reading list. A shame I haven't read it thus far.
Stop by my blog and say hello!
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