How Joyce Published The Novel of the Century + How To Read It

A brief history of the mess James Joyce had to put up with to publish Ulysses and how to read the text without losing your mind ft. Prof. Rónán McDonald, The Gerry Higgins Chair of Irish Studies.

Resources to help you get through the book:

RTÉ podcast production: a fantastic free audiobook of all eighteen episodes:

U22 Podcast: various interviews with experts on Ulysses

The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: a comprehensive edition of the 1922 text

ReJoyce Podcast: for tracking down obscure allusions:

The Joyce Project: a complete online edition of Ulysses with comprehensive links

Other Resources:
My course on keeping a writer's diary:
My playlist on Reading:

Introduction: From The Archive: 00:00
1: Sponsor: 01:04
2: Which Edition is The Best?: 02:28
3: Joyce's Schemata: 07:30
4: Tips for Reading Ulysses: 09:53
5: Conclusion: 12:35

[Skavop]

That was a very good intro to Joyce's "Ulysses", and I loved the screenshots and footage you used to explain points. Joyce's corrections for the final section of the book really shows how thought out, revised and thorough his writing was. There's the extra difficulty for readers who aren't Irish that you point out; the context and politics referred to. Not just that, though, but the fact that it's written very much in a colloquial style Hiberno-Irish. We Irish love playing about with language, and have various tenses that exist in Irish but not English, and have transposed the English language to expand these tenses. This becomes relevant in Ulysses, because it's a saga, set over the course of a day, but is an ongoing and epic wandering of the jewish man, Bloom, who eventually comes full circle in his circumnavigations and preambulations, and finds his (spiritual) son at the end of the journey, which is a quest for meaning (something every reader of the book will relate to, as it's also a struggle to convey meaning to the reader, in a literary stream of consciousness style). When I read it first, I had a companion reader to help me not get too lost on the journey, and I do think that paying a little, but not obsessive, attention to notes and scheme (particularly the listing of bodily organs within this body of work ) will provide the keys to really unlock this book. Of course, you rightly point out that one shouldn't obsess over each and every meaning, but let the flow of the words and ideas do their thing.

[anthonydraper]

Love this video and the style, especially including your professor’s thoughts. I’ve enjoyed watching your evolving video style/content over the years.

[pi.-y]

OH MY THIS HAS COME AT A PERFECT TIME🤩 I'm going to Maynooth as an exchange student with Erasmus next year and I wanted to buy a proper copy, so I can go to Dublin when I'm there and read it for the first time😍Ohhh I'm so excited 🥳 This feels like fate!!!🥰

[CMri]

I love how you speak about literature. It's always very informative, interesting and full of passion. I always look for content creators like that and sadly there's not many.

[ryansisters]

Your videos are such high quality. Keep up the great work!

[ambreenali.]

Wow, thanks for all the info on which edition we should read, this is really helpful. Ulysses has been on my TBR for almost two years now and your video just gave me motivation to finally start reading it.

[haven]

I’ve been meaning to add irish literature to my self - education process, along with philosophy, and this provides a lot of helpful information. thanks robin :]

[IvanKrzhaev]

Finally, I’ve been waiting for this video for a long time

[ansonso]

Very insightful review (or preview) of Ulysses Robin! I absolutely love the part where you interviewed Prof McDonald, which is very rare and unique for a booktube video essay.

Do you plan on discussing other modern classics in this format in the future as well?

[Cristian-so]

Great video. It will help me a lot in my journey of reading Ulysses. Thank you :)

[helenskaa]

I'd love to see more of these videos! Introductions of big/difficult books and which edition to read.

[nochannel]

Thank you for sharing this take on enjoying books that have been so studied they are now mostly depicted as canonical rather than actually fun (even when properly hilarious, such as "Le Rouge Et Le Noir", Stendhal).

[Varykino]

I always enjoy your videos. I enjoy your take on things and the fact that you make me think about stuff. I tried reading this book once: it was like eating a rhino. Okay, from your inspiration, I'll try eating it again. Funny how this book is now over 100 years old and we still esteem it. Yet, when people speak of past society, they always describe the past as being horrible and not of value. But here we are loving the Paris set.

[basserman]

This reputational reading - constant labeling of Ulysses as "terrifying", it does little good for the aspiring reader, especially towards those who may have the initial faculty or affinity for works like Ulysses. Leave this mindset in the past, for it only invokes the current feckless reading habits currently propagating the institutions of today. Welcome whatever works you want to read, enough of this fear mongering for humanity's greatest contributions; we still read them today for this and all other marvelous reasons, least of which should ever be fear or anxiety.

[suneasmussen]

I feel that exact way about Pessoa's 'Book of disquiet' (i.e. that I'll keep re-reading until I die) which I find more interesting, less slapstick and more sincere than the part of Ulysses I've read.

[bujobyfilo]

That was really interesting, I appreciate all the research you did and your teacher is very nice and interesting too!

[praalgraf]

introducing something like ulysses in so little time is no small feat, but you did a great job with it !

[LifesHourglass]

amazing! it was really helpful and fun

[JimBEATTIE-osjk]

I have read Ulysses myself at least one time all the way through and I have read numerous individual passages and I agree with the professor in Melbourne that a reader should not worry about all of the details that are obscure but to simply enjoy the play of words the thought processes of Bloom almost as if you're listening to jazz music which is the art of improvisation and you don't understand it in the sense you can put anything to words but you just enjoy the flow with Ulysses it's the wonderful language and the play of words you don't need to worry about Irish politics at the time add politics are always the same anywhere I used to read portions of Ulysses allowed with a friend in New Jersey who has read Ulysses cover to cover half a dozen times and we would just enjoy ourselves and we would lay off and shake her heads and Marvel at the Incredible use of language and we would do this for hours while smoking cheap cigars and drinking Sam Adams beer

[uowrysb]

Can you do similar videos covering the harvard classics?