If you ’re a fan of James Joyce , take a irregular to thank Sylvia Beach . An American expatriate living in Paris , Beach owned the bookshop Shakespeare and Company , which release Joyce’sUlyssesin 1922 . She also convinced the generator to record passages of two of his most famous books .
Ulysses: Aeolus (1924)
In 1924 , at Beach ’s goad , Joyce made a transcription of his modernist monsterpieceUlysses — the only in creation today .
Beach booked a transcription session with His Masters Voice , which was located in a Parisian suburban area . Joyce decided to read John Taylor ’s spoken communication from the Aeolus sequence . He was nervous , however , and spent weeks prepare . ( Joyce had to memorise the passage because a cataract in his left centre made reading nearly out of the question . ) Joyce ’s first attempt failed . His second attempt , however , go like this :
Finnegans Wake: Anna Livia Plurabelle (1929)
In 1929 , Beach helped insert Joyce to C.K. Ogden , an English linguist who later wrote a preface for part of Joyce ’s “ Work in Progress”—Finnegans Wake . Ogden was the founder of the Orthological Institute at Cambridge . The institute house the finest recording equipment , and Ogden often asked writers to try it out .
In August 1929 , Joyce visited Ogden for a transcription session . He decided to read an selection from “ Anna Livia Plurabelle , ” a chapter that overflows with allusion to the world ’s river . Ogden jazz Joyce ’s eyesight was terrible , so he copied and lucubrate the school text , stretching the words until they were a half - inch marvellous . When Joyce look at the handwriting , he still could n’t read it . He supposedly take someone to whisper along to remain on course .
Unlike the 1924 transcription , Joyce lilts with a fatheaded accent . harmonize to the James Joyce Centre in Dublin , he was imitating “ the brogue of an Irish automatic washer - cleaning woman . ” Literary Critic Harry Levin later wrote that “ Everyone . . .will agree that the best introduction to [ Joyce ’s ] book [ Finnegans Wake ] is to get wind him read it aloud . ” You be the judge :
Here ’s the text :
For more on Joyce ’s transcription , visit Dublin’sJames Joyce Centre .
This station in the beginning appeared last twelvemonth .
