Who was—?
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I, Narrator
“Cyclops,” Ulysses’ twelfth episode, is delivered through the colorful narration of an anonymous patron of Barney Kiernan’s pub, occasionally interrupted by elaborate comedic interpolations. Our main POV characters are either totally absent (in Stephen Dedalus’ case) or totally subsumed by the Narrator’s running commentary on the events unfolding in the pub in the early evening…
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Who were the real men in Barney Kiernan’s pub?
This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and unfortunately for Mr. Bloom, everyone seems to know all his business in Barney Kiernan’s pub. In “Cyclops”, the twelfth episode of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom shows up…
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Ep. 176 – Almidano Artifoni
I hope you didn’t expect us to know Italian. Topics in this episode include the real Almidano Artifoni, why he wears such stiff trousers, what he and Stephen are talking about in “Wandering Rocks,” James Joyce’s early passion for the Italian language, Joyce’s early days in Trieste, his friendship with Artifoni, the Nolan, Christopher Nolan,…
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Who were the real people in the Ormond Hotel in “Sirens”?
This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. “Sirens,” the eleventh episode of Ulysses, is memorable for its musical prose, but it also stands out as an episode of revelry in the bar and restaurant of the Ormond Hotel. While Bloom cringes in anguish watching…
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Ep. 162 – Quaker Librarian
I, for one, think geese really do have souls. Topics in this episode include librarian Thomas Lyster and his Quaker faith, why Lyster always seems to be dancing in “Scylla and Charybdis,” the journal of Quaker founder George Fox, what James Joyce knew about the Quakerism, Christfox, leather trews, confusing Shakespeare and George Fox in…
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The Most Historic Spot in All Dublin
The eighth section of Ulysses’ tenth episode, “Wandering Rocks” opens with “two pink faces” greeting a third in some dark, dusty chamber. We are reunited with two characters we haven’t seen since the “Aeolus” episode: Ned Lambert and J.J. “Jack” O’Molloy. Ned is accompanied by an entity introduced simply as a clergyman with a “refined…
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Who was the real Almidano Artifoni?
This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. In the sixth vignette of Ulysses’ tenth episode, “Wandering Rocks,” we see Stephen Dedalus chatting with Almidano Artifoni, a music maestro with comically starchy trousers. Their conversation is written entirely in untranslated Italian, so if, like me,…
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Ep. 153 – Who Were the Real Men in the Library from “Scylla and Charybdis”?
Eglinton knows Best. Topics in this episode include the real-life versions of John Eglinton and Richard Best, Best’s contribution to the study of Irish mythology, how Best supported James Joyce’s abandoned music career, what his portrayal in Ulysses gets right and wrong, how the real Best felt about his fictional counterpart in Ulysses, gay-coding and…
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Ep. 146 – Is Blazes Boylan the worst man in Dublin?
Well, was he? Topics in this episode include a thorough dissection of Hugh E. “Blazes” Boylan, why Boylan jingles and jaunts, Boylan’s snappy wardrobe, clocks on socks, whether or not Boylan smells rich, Boylan’s business ventures, Boylan’s father the horse trader, the Myler Keogh controversy, the unreliable narrators in Barney Kiernan’s pub, the sex crimes…
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Decoding Dedalus: Christfox in Leather Trews
This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p.193 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage that…