Quotes from Ulysses, by James Joyce
“The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring. Paintings of Moreau are paintings of ideas. The deepest poetry of Shelley, the words of Hamlet bring our mind into contact with the eternal wisdom; Plato’s world of ideas. All the rest is the speculation of schoolboys for schoolboys.”
Ulysses, by James Joyce
“The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring. Paintings of Moreau are paintings of ideas. The deepest poetry of Shelley, the words of Hamlet bring our mind into contact with the eternal wisdom; Plato’s world of ideas. All the rest is the speculation of schoolboys for schoolboys.”
Stunning bookstore in Dublin!
Yesterday, after walking past Cathach Books (now Ulysses Rare Books) in Duke Street to go to my favourite bookstore in Dublin (Hodges Figgis) in Duke Street, my eyes caught a gem of another bookstore. Cathach Books sells first editions of James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett and so many more fantastic Irish authors. In the window display, the first edition of Ulysses by James Joyce sells at €45000 (approximately $57323,47 or £36099) and if I would ever win the lottery, I would definitely go to the store to buy some of its gems! Now Cathach Books is my favourite bookstore, followed closely of course by Hodges Figgis!
Ireland, a love story
“You will be back in 3 months time” my dad said. “Ireland is a third world country.” He was a truck driver in the 1980s, delivering goods to Ireland when the country was in recession and likened the country to one that was in chaos and in serious economic trouble. Understandably he thought that as a Belgian girl, I would miss certain things that come for granted in a rich, industrialized country. The Ireland of 2002 was not a third world country anymore, in fact it never was. In 2002, the country’s economy was booming and tenderly called the ‘Celtic Tiger.’ For a while, it had the lowest unemployment in Europe, but when it fell into recession in 2008, we suddenly became the country with the highest number in unemployed people. From…
Dublin: a state of mind
‘Dublin is as much a state of mind as it is a city’ Tom MacDonagh It is, that I can tell you for sure. Dublin has a way of getting under your skin. In a good way and in a lesser way. Dublin is Dublin is Dublin, but sadly Irishness is disappearing from the city.
James Joyce, Bloomsday and onions
Last Saturday Ireland celebrated Bloomsday, a day that stands out each year because of the many faces Irish people, foreign residents and visitors alike give it. For those unknown to what Bloomsday is, Leopold Bloom is the main character in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The story was set in and around Dublin on June 16th, 1904. In 1954 Bloomsday became what it is today and Leopold Bloom and Joyce got their just rewards: a day named after them and a day to showcase the wonderful artistry of Joyce. I’ve always admired Irish authors; they seem to have a wonderful sense of imagination, and they have the gift of putting this into words, much like the Greeks did with their myths. My love for them is old, ancient and combined with my…
Why Ireland?
People often ask me: “Why Ireland?” And tongue-in-cheek, I think, “Do you have a day or two so I can explain?” It goes back years, if not decades. I remember as a kid in the library under our apartment, how I traveled through Ireland by sitting down and watching pictures in big books on Ireland. I could not imagine that the Ireland in the travel guides was the same island of Ireland we used to see on TV at night, where people were killed in bomb attacks and house fires in the north, where people were executed for their religion, their beliefs. Of course, the news reports were about Northern Ireland. Somehow I was attracted to the underdog, and in my eyes Ireland was that underdog. I’ve always had a…