One Hundred Years of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’

The making and aftermath of James Joyce’s Ulysses get the spotlight in this smart collection of essays brought together by novelist Tóibín (The Magician), published in collaboration with the Morgan Library & Museum. “Joyce in Paris, 1920–1922” by Catherine Flynn covers the novel’s publication history, focusing on Joyce’s time in France and his relationship with Shakespeare & Company owner Sylvia Beach. “Ulysses and Free Speech: Looking Back to Move Forward” by Joseph M. Hassett recounts the obscenity charges brought against the book’s American publisher in 1921. “The Rosenbach Manuscript” by Derick Dreher traces how Joyce’s manuscript made its way to Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Library. Maria DiBattista’s excellent “Revisioning Ulysses,” on Joyce’s editing process, is accompanied by remarkable images of Joyce’s typed schema, making for a kind of cheat sheet for the novel’s complex web of relationships. Lavish illustrations appear throughout, and by the end, readers will be sympathetic to the claim made by Margaret Anderson, who serialized part of the novel in the Little Review in 1918, that “this is the most beautiful thing we’ll ever have.” The result is a fascinating glimpse into Joyce’s posthumous transformation from novelist into cultural icon, just right for fans and scholars. (May)