UlyssesIn80-Reading James Joyce Masterpiece in 80 Days
Jul 3, 2026 · 56 min · 10 segments
Cyclops. History. The Life of Ulysses. This week on **Ulysses in 80**, we welcome **Professor** **Robert Spoo,** Princeton University**,** for a wide-ranging conversation recorded as we discuss the…
Robert SpooGuest
Mark Sanford GrossHost
Cliona O'FarrellyHostClaire HuttonPanelistMacyPanelistAnnePanelist
Craig TepperPanelist
This is, you probably recognize, this is the style of the Random House edition, the famous Ulysses block letters that were created by Ernst Reichel, famously.
It's one of the many things that Bloom has sort of hazily, shadowily accused of being involved in, some kind of swindle, but we can talk about that later.
Thank you very much, both of you, Cleona and Mark, for bringing me to your amazing group.
I think you have to be a little more professionally immersed in irish history to claim that i i would like to think that i i know something about it i've written about it it sort of surrounds and then exists within ulysses which has been a fascination of mine for a very long time the way i like to think about irish history and Ulysses is, first of all, remember where we are in time, or where Joyce has put us in time, which is, you know, June 16th, 1904.
He is writing at a different time, but his fictional framework locks him into a moment in 1904, a single day, or part of a day, 18 hours or so.
I think that has very interesting history implications for the story and for Joyce and for Irish history.
By the time the book is published in 1922, Ireland has achieved a major step in its independence.
But the story that Joyce tells cannot openly acknowledge that freedom because it is still 1904.
It is still part of Britain, still a colonized country, still part of the British Empire.
And of course, a portion of it, the North Northern Ireland, those six counties very controversially would remain with Britain as part of the UK.
The moment in which Ulysses occurs is 1904 and a lot of Irish historians Think of that if you've heard of Adrian Hardiman.
This is, you probably recognize, this is the style of the Random House edition, the famous Ulysses block letters that were created by Ernst Reichel, famously.
It's one of the many things that Bloom has sort of hazily, shadowily accused of being involved in, some kind of swindle, but we can talk about that later.
Thank you very much, both of you, Cleona and Mark, for bringing me to your amazing group.
I think you have to be a little more professionally immersed in irish history to claim that i i would like to think that i i know something about it i've written about it it sort of surrounds and then exists within ulysses which has been a fascination of mine for a very long time the way i like to think about irish history and Ulysses is, first of all, remember where we are in time, or where Joyce has put us in time, which is, you know, June 16th, 1904.
He is writing at a different time, but his fictional framework locks him into a moment in 1904, a single day, or part of a day, 18 hours or so.
I think that has very interesting history implications for the story and for Joyce and for Irish history.
By the time the book is published in 1922, Ireland has achieved a major step in its independence.
But the story that Joyce tells cannot openly acknowledge that freedom because it is still 1904.
It is still part of Britain, still a colonized country, still part of the British Empire.
And of course, a portion of it, the North Northern Ireland, those six counties very controversially would remain with Britain as part of the UK.
The moment in which Ulysses occurs is 1904 and a lot of Irish historians Think of that if you've heard of Adrian Hardiman.
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