The Socialism of James Joyce

 
Ulysses is a book in which everything happens and nothing happens. The story of a day in the life of a city — the Hibernian metropolis, as James Joyce saw Dublin — is a journey in a rambling flow of consciousness, where the very serious political issues of the day (the book is set on June 16, 1904) wrestle for space with the mundanities and excitement of the lives of his characters. Speaking of his appreciation for the book, Jeremy Corbyn noted how ‘Joyce references and richly describes what’s happening in the street. So somebody is holding forth about a big political issue and then the refuse cart goes by.’ Edna O’Brien, one of Joyce’s finest biographers, has rightly maintained that ‘no other writer so effulgently and so ravenously recreated a city.’ ...”

 
A section of an 1883 Letts, Son, and Company map of Dublin showing the eastern end of Liffey between the Custom House and the river’s mouth. Along the north bank are the main docks and port industrial complexes. Port and Docks - Mapping Dubliners

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