James Joyce's Ulysses first edition under the hammer

A first edition of James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses is reportedly expected to sell for tens of thousands of euro when it goes under the hammer in London today.

Reports this morning say the book has a guide price of up to €50,000, but is expected to fetch significantly more than this figure.

Interest in James Joyce artefacts has soared in recent years leading to a rise in prices being paid as collectors across the world seek out rare items.
Ulysses is seen as James Joyce’s most important work. It was released in 1922 but banned in many English-speaking countries until it was finally published in Britain in 1936. Only 750 first-edition copies of Ulysses were printed.

Ulysses deals with the opulence of personal thought and while we are ushered into its characters private worlds with ease, we know little about their exteriors. The narrative parallels Homer’s Odyssey, but an in-depth knowledge of The Odyssey is not necessary for enjoyment of Ulysses.

The main character in the book is Leopold Bloom, a non-practising Jew. Throughout the novel, the reader is permitted to become wholly familiar with the inner workings of Leopold’s mind, but not given enough information about his physical appearance to form a clear mental picture of him. We are told he is quiet and decent, a man of inflexible honour to his fingertips. He has a pale intellectual face in which are set two dark large lidded, superbly expressive eyes.

The story of a haunting sorrow is written on his face and his friends say that there’s a touch of the artist about old Bloom. A safe moustached man who has his good points and slips off when the fun gets too hot.

Another significant figure winding his way through the streets of Dublin in Ulysses is Stephen Dedalus, whom we first meet in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen is an arrogant young intellectual whom Bloom takes under his wing. He acts as a father figure to the young Stephen who fulfils the role to some extent of son for Bloom whose own son died in infancy.

Molly Bloom in Ulysses is equated with Penelope in The Odyssey and the last chapter of the book is dedicated solely to her meanderings and musings. It is one of the most renowned pieces of writing in Ulysses and is famous for its celebration of this voluptuous, sensuous, opulent, abundant, independent, lush, and blooming woman.