The Scandal of "Ulysses"

by Bruce Arnold

"When Bruce Arnold's The Scandal of Ulysses first appeared, twelve years ago, it was described as "the sensational life of a twentieth-century masterpiece" and "the definitive biography". In 1992, with the ending of copyright, the sensational, scandalous part of the life of Ulysses seemed to be drawing to a close. This was far from the truth. A new phase was about to open with the change in the law on copyright. And the book, in the mid-1990s, was plunged once more into conflict with the James Joyce Estate going to the courts to protect its rights." This revised edition brings the story up to date. It describes the sad fate of John Kidd, once the knight in shining armour challenging the Joyce establishment, now discredited in Boston, without his James Joyce Center and with no edition of Ulysses to offer; the resurrection of Hans Walter Gabler, whose reputation was assaulted by Kidd and seemed irrevocably damaged, but was then recovered and made whole again; the battle between Danis Rose and the James Joyce Estate over yet another edition of the book, ending up in the most famous copyright court case of the 1990s; and how a new army of Joyceans took the place of the old.

Genres: Ireland

204 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bruce Arnold is an English journalist and author who has lived in Ireland since 1957. His main expertise is in the fields of literary criticism and art criticism.
In 1983 it emerged that his telephone had been bugged by Charles J. Haughey in the Irish phone tapping scandal. He and the other bugged journalists were considered to have "anti-national" views.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samuel R. Delany recommended this book to me on Facebook, as I was finishing Ulysses itself. This is the story of the text of Ulysses, after it was published, and through separate editions, and especially the unfortunately Gabler edition published in the late 80s. The story is told very well, and it is a scandal that a new edition was published with very little feedback from the literary world. A superb book, and if you are interested at all in the topic I highly recommend it.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid account of the controversy arising in the Joycean community over Hans Walter Gabler's 1986 edition of Ulysses: The Corrected Text. The book is a little dense in places (as Arnold humourously admits) and most readers will find the passions sparked by the controversy itself faintly ludicrous, but the former point is a minor irritation and the latter adds, in some ways, to the enjoyment.