Delaney, Frank; Joyce, James; Lewinski, Jorge

James Joyce's Odyssey: A Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses

New York, NY, USA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981. First American Edition. Hardcover. "Frank Delaney describes Ulysses as one of the pleasures of life, 'an entertaining, funny, absorbing, exciting, enjoyable novel, a book to get lost in, a book to take to a desert island, a book to keep by your bedside, and discover each day something new, a book to be quoted from, recalled, discussed, contemplated, bequeathed, bestowed, but above all to be relished, savoured, a work of intelligence and delight.'" (excerpt, front flap). James Joyce's Odyssey: A Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses is a topographical companion to Irish novelist, poet & literary critic James Joyce's (1882-1941) literary landmark Ulysses, written by Irish novelist Frank Delaney (1942-2017) with photographs by Jorge Lewinski (1921-2008), the Polish-born photographer who was the pre-eminent lensman of artists at the time. Delaney walks the reader through the Dublin of June 16, 1904 more or less as the novel's day unfolds, moving from the Martello tower at Sandycove outward through the city, tying each locale to the episode set there and to Joyce's own life and lodgings. Lewinski's photographs run alongside as the visual argument. The organizing conceit is Joyce's own famous boast that if Dublin were destroyed it could be rebuilt from his book; Delaney effectively takes him at his word and tests it on the ground. James Joyce's Odyssey: A Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses was Delaney's first book, and it was the making of him. It became a bestseller in the UK and Ireland and established him as the popular Joyce voice. He was then a BBC broadcaster, not an academic, and the book reads that way by design. Delaney lowered the entry cost for a general reader intimidated by the novel, using place as the way in. Its 1981 date puts it squarely at the front of the Joyce centenary wave of 1982 and the beginning of Dublin's Bloomsday-as-heritage industry. Joyce stayed with Delaney for life: Delaney was still recording Re:Joyce, his page-by-page Ulysses podcast begun on Bloomsday 2010, when he died in 2017 with the project unfinished. From the collection of the late, great George Bornstein (1941-2021), scholar, author & academician here at the University of Michigan- a quintessential Man of Letters. Hardcover in unclipped Dust Jacket: First American Edition as stated at copyright page, first printing indicated by number sequence thereon. A most collectible "Ulysses" companion in one of its rarest forms with very distinguished provenance. Book in relatively Very Fine condition with mild age-toning mostly to top fine edge of front, back covers & spine; mild bumping to corners of same; mild age-toning & rubbing to text block. Interior very fine with very mild age-toning mostly to blank margins & fine edges of page leaves. Dust Jacket Fine-to-Very Fine with mild age-toning, rubbing & scratching mostly to fine edges of front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild bumping of corners of same; one appx: 2" enclosed tear to bottom of back cover at/along spine. Very Fine / Fine-Very Fine. [Item #9331]

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