Dear Yeats,
[…] Besides this I am writing a book Ulysses which however will not be finished for some years. Possibly the novel…will engage the attention of my six or seven readers…
So writes James Joyce to W. B. Yeats in a letter dated 14 September, 1916, held at the National Library of Ireland. At this stage, Joyce could not have known that this novel would come to be seen as one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century literature and influence generations of authors to come.
Published in 1922, Ulysses follows the movements of thoughtful Dubliner Leopold Bloom around Dublin city on a single day in June 1904, combining stream-of-consciousness narration, mythic parallels, humour and social frankness. The city in which Joyce sets his novel was profoundly influenced by the elder poet W. B. Yeats - from the founding of the Abbey Theatre in 1904, to such momentous poems as “Easter 1916”, to his term as Senator in the young Free State. After his death, T. S. Eliot described Yeats as “one of those whose history is the history of their own time”. This fascinating tour explores the lives of Joyce and Yeats, the development of their styles and their complex relationships with the city of Dublin.
James Murray read English at Trinity and the University of Oxford. He works as a research assistant and freelance editor. He is interested in poetry, early-twentieth-century literature, and Irish culture.
Meeting Point: National Library of Ireland Please be at the meeting point 10 minutes before your tour start time