James Joyce - Ulysses Excerpts

James Joyce made these gramophone recordings in Paris in 1924, two years after the novel was published. He went to the studio specifically to preserve the exact cadence, internal rhythms, and Irish intonation he intended for his highly experimental text.

Joyce recorded the famous "Aeolus" episode passage featuring the character Myles Crawford. He chose this specific section because of its complex, onomatopoeic language and rhetorical flourishes that mimic the noise of printing presses.

Joyce was deeply concerned that readers, particularly those outside of Ireland, were completely mispronouncing the dialogue and missing the musicality of his prose. By recording himself, he aimed to establish an authoritative auditory guide to the dense modernist language found in the 1922 novel.

Joyce's 1924 recordings were released by His Master's Voice, a prominent British record label. Because he had to fund the studio time himself, only a very limited number of shellac discs were pressed, making the original copies incredibly rare collector's items today.