Ulysses
Reading the classics should be a joy, not a duty
Edwin Frank’s survey of 20th-century fiction stresses the po-faced seriousness of the great novel. But many masterpieces revel in the ridiculous – or are about nothing at all
All roads lead to Dublin
I do not think I am alone in confessing that I had read critical works on James Joyce before I…
Lend me your ears
Don’t read James Joyce’s Ulysses, says John Phipps. Listen to it
Disappearing doilies
This week marks the beginning of modernism season on BBC Radio 3 and 4, which means it’s time for some…
The great Seven Stars – but not, alas, its furry bar staff – is immune to change
Roy Hattersley once wrote a plangent passage about a painful aspect of the human condition: the short span of animals’…
