J_JOYce 10/24/07 8:21 AM Page 1 R J ‘Is there one who eading oyce understands me?’ So wrote James Joyce towards the end ofhis final “Of the making of books about James Joyce there is no end,but Reading Joyceby David “Reading Joyce by David Pierce is work,Finnegans Wake.The question continues to be Pierce is something special. It is the distillation of a lifetime’s immersion as a teacher and something special... I can think of no better asked about the author who claimed that he had critic in the work of a great but dauntingly difficult modern writer. I can think of no R companion for anyone embarking on a put so many enigmas into Ulyssesthat it would better companion for anyone embarking on a serious exploration of Joyce’s work,but ‘keep the professors busy for centuries’arguing over seasoned Joyceans will also find much to delight and inform them here. It is a literary as e serious exploration of Joyce’s work... what he meant.For Joyce this was a way ofensuring well as a critical achievement,a unique blend of commentary and confession,biography It is a literary as well as a critical his immortality,but it could also be claimed that a David Pierce has taught,read,and written about and autobiography,illustrated throughout by a profusion of fascinating photographs, achievement.” the professors have served to distance Joyce from his modern literature and Irish writing for more than drawings,maps and other images which evoke the world of James Joyce and the ways in d David Lodge audience,turning his writings into museum pieces, which his books have been received.” pored over and admired,but rarely touched. thirty years.He is on the Board ofthe International David Lodge James Joyce Foundation and the author ofJames i In this remarkable book,steeped in the learning Joyce's Ireland;Yeats's Worlds: Ireland,England and the n “Many critics of James Joyce are smart:David Pierce is also wise.Reading Joycebrilliantly gained from a lifetime's reading,David Pierce Poetic Imagination;Irish Writing in the Twentieth and judiciously uses his experiences as a fine teacher,a major scholar – and an open, blends word,life and image to bring the works of Century: A Reader;Light,Freedom and Song: A receptive reader.And few critics are so skillfully alert to the actual,material,visible world g one ofthe great modern writers within the reach of Cultural History ofModern Irish Writing;and Joyce in which Joyce’s works take place.” every reader.With a sharp eye for detail and an and Company.David lives in York. evident delight in the cadences ofJoyce’s work, Morris Beja,author ofJames Joyce:A Literary Life,and former President, J Pierce proves a perfect companion,always careful the International James Joyce Foundation o and courteous,pausing to point out what might otherwise be missed.Like the best ofcritics,his “This is a brave,richly informed,and candid book,an engaging mix of biography, suggestive readings constantly encourage the reader autobiography,and critical analysis.A godsend to teachers and students alike,it y back to Joyce’s own words.Beginning with brilliantly demystifies Joyce,without compromising his complexity.It is a uniquely c Dubliners and closing with Finnegans Wake, personal odyssey of discovery which all Joyceans will recognise as their own,too.” READING JOYCEis full ofinsights that are original Professor Terry Dolan,University College Dublin e and illuminating,and Pierce succeeds in presenting Joyce as an author both more straightforward and “Reading Joyceis an ideal introduction to the works of the Master.Unlike many writers on infinitely more complex than we had perhaps R imagined. Joyce,Pierce chooses to addresses the reader on terms of equality rather than to revel self- D eading regardingly in difficulties or to confuse them with a theoretical overlay which Joyce him- A T.S.Eliot wrote ofJoyce’s masterpiece,Ulysses,that self would have laughed at.This book presents Joyce mediated by an urbane and witty V it is ‘a book to which we are all indebted,and from expert,who expects the same qualities in his readers.Pierce does not flagellate himself – I which none ofus can escape’.With David Pierce as D as too many Joyceans do – over trifles or theories and does not expect his readers to do so a guide,the debt we owe to Joyce becomes clearer, either.” J P and the need to flee is greatly reduced. Mr.Justice Adrian Hardiman M.R.I.A,Supreme Court ofIreland I oyce E R C E R o u tle DAVID PIERCE d www.routledge.com g e REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page i Reading Joyce REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page ii James Joyce; photograph by Berenice Abbott, Paris, 1928 Source:Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics NYC REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page iii Reading Joyce David Pierce REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page iv First published 2008 by Pearson Education Limited Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2008, Taylor & Francis. The right of David Pierce to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library. ISBN 13: 978-1-4058-4061-3 (pbk) Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pierce, David, 1947– Reading Joyce/David Pierce. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4058-4061-3 1. Joyce, James, 1882–1941––Criticism and interpretation. 2. Joyce, James, 1882–1941––Appreciation. 3. Joyce, James, 1882–1941––Study and teaching. I. Title. PR6019. 09Z7819 2007 823'. 912––dc22 Set by 73 in 10/13.5 pt Sabon 2007038448 REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page v For Mary and Matt, home again REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page vi Also by David Pierce AttitudestoClassintheEnglishNovel(withMaryEagleton),London:1979; W. B. Yeats:A Guide Through the Critical Maze, Bristol: 1989;James Joyce’s Ireland, London and New Haven: 1992;Yeats’s Worlds:Ireland, England and the Poetic Imagination, London and New Haven: 1995; Sterne in Modernism/Postmodernism(co-editor with Peter de Voogd), Amsterdam: 1996;W. B. Yeats:Critical Assessments, 4 vols, Robertsbridge: 2000;Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century:A Reader, Cork: 2001; Light, Freedom and Song:A Cultural History of Modern Irish Writing, London and New Haven: 2005; Joyce and Company, London: 2006. REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page vii Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xv Abbreviations xvii 1 Introduction 1 Opening remarks· Difficulty and delay· Snapshots of Joyce · Home, sweet home 2 1904: Joyce’s point of departure 35 Colonial contexts ·At 22 · Stephen Daedalus · Myths and reality ·Defiance and displacement 3 The unfinished sentences of ‘The Sisters’ 69 Unfinished sentences ·Ritual and folklore ·Humour 4 Saying goodbye in ‘Eveline’ 89 Emigration ·The language of ‘Eveline’ 5 Blinds and railings in ‘Araby’ and ‘Two Gallants’ 108 ‘Araby’ ·‘Two Gallants’ 6 Teaching Dubliners 128 Handouts ·Student responses ·Writing and politics ·Series · All the living and the dead 7 On A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 156 Title, epigraph, orientation ·Once upon a time ·The interior space ·In the beginning was the word ·The subject in language ·Joyce among the Jesuits 8 Approaching Ulysses 187 On reading Ulyssesfor the first time ·Structure ·Getting help · Thalatta! Thalatta!– an epiphany ·Homer ·Boul’ Mich’, Paris ·Wild Geese ·Anti-clericalism REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page viii viii CONTENTS 9 Leopold Bloom at home and at work 222 7 Eccles Street ·Gesabo ·A regulated world · The Freeman’s Journal 10 Student responses to Molly Bloom 267 A female gorilla or a slapper? ·The German Emperor · A literary bombshell ·Breathless ·The novel to end all novels 11 Figuring out Finnegans Wake 301 An unknown cargo ·Preliminary notes ·The Earwickers of Sidlesham ·The paradigmatic ear ·Closing moments Afterword 333 Select bibliography 340 Index 351 REJO_A01.QXD 29/10/07 4:18 pm Page ix List of illustrations James Joyce, photograph by Berenice Abbott ii Guy Davenport’s caricature of Joyce dangling a pair of bloomers xviii Listing in Radio Timesof Is There One Who Understands Me? 2 The Phoenix Park; Edwardian postcard 10 Brancusi’s Symbol of Joyce 14 Portrait of James Joyce by Constantin Brancusi 14 Photograph of Joyce by Carola Giedion-Welcker 15 Photograph of Joyce by Gisèle Freund 16 Poster for the International James Joyce Symposium, Venice 17 SylviaBeachandJoyceoutsideShakespeareandCompany,Paris 17 Final issue of The Little Review 18 Photograph of Joyce by Berenice Abbott 19 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, where Joyce was born 20 1 Martello Terrace, Bray, where the Christmas dinner scene in A Portraitis staged 20 Hôtel du Commerce at St Gérand-du-Puy, where the Joyces stayed in 1940 21 Joyce family in transit, Zurich 23 Photograph of Joyce and Adrienne Monnier by Gisèle Freund 26 La Coupole in Montparnasse, Paris, in the 1930s and 2006 28 Dan Harper’s photo of the actor Eamonn Morrisey, dressed as Bloom in the Martello Tower at Sandycove 30 Entry for Maginni in Thom’s Business Directory of Dublin and Suburbs for the year 1906 30 The Ormond Hotel on the quays in Dublin, the setting for ‘Sirens’ in Ulysses 31 Switzer and Co. 32 Postcard of Dublin, Georgia 34 Sackville Street in the late-1890s 37 Statue of Sir John Gray, Sackville Street 37 Setting for ‘The Sisters’ in The Irish Homestead 45 First paragraph of the first version of ‘The Sisters’ 47