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Calendar of James Joyce's reading 1888-1905

Someone asked recently [1997] if there was a calendar of Joyce's reading available. I did this a couple of years ago, and it only uses some half-dozen sources, but I'm not sure how much more is relevant. (Bradley, Costello, Stannie, Critical Writings, Curran, Ellmann, letters, Portrait) It's only intended as a personal index to the original sources at this point.

Some evidences are stronger than others, but one conclusion that seems well-supported is that when Joyce declared Ibsen the pinnacle of Western Civ, he'd hardly read anything else. Notice especially his enjoyment of Erckmann-Chatrian in 1898, which is unthinkable if he were reading widely, and the very limited allusions in his essays of 1898-1899. (An interesting challenge will be to deduce how Joyce discovered Ibsen despite this.)

Resource: [Latin&Greek]

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1888

spelling, sums, geography, writing, Latin, and history. catechism? (BB44)

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1889

Moore's Melodies (PC94) [poems]

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1890

Mangall's Historical and Misc. Questions,

Parley's Tales of Ancient and Modern Greece (and Rome) (PC85)

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1891

Life of Ignatius Loyola? (name scratched in library book, BB82)

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1892

Grimm [e] and Andersen [e] (SJ44- Uncle William)

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1893

book w/Raynold- Dumas: Count of Monte Cristo [e] (PC105, PoA),

something about Napoleon? (PoA)

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1894

Byron, [e]

Newman (PoA); [es]

Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses [e]

Lyster's poets (Byron- not Tennyson- Milton, Gray, Cowper, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Scott, Southey, Campbell, Moore, Wolfe, Longfellow, Browning, Kingsley, Ferguson BB164), Ferguson's 'Mesegdra' [cpc5-6]

Latin, French, Italian, arithmetic, algebra, Euclid (BB106),

Ovid, [es]

Caesar, [es]

Pressense,

Florian, [French]

De Amici (BB112);

not Marryat? (PoA)

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1895

Malory? (Dempsey in 1909, BB105), [e]

Lamartine,

de Maistre, [?French] [?site]

Florian,

Aeneid, [es] [es]

de Bello Gallico,

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, [e]

Scott's "Lord of the Isles",

Metastasio (BB115)

Lockhart's Life of Napoleon? (PC131) [of Scott]

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1896

not Scott or Dickens [es] (SJ79)

Shelley? (SJ99) [poems]

WS's Henry VIII (CW16),

Memoirs of Vidocq? (PC134)

[Capel street possibles: Rabelais, Balzac, Zola, no Flaubert (PC139)] ???: Kipling, HG Wells, Conan Doyle A Royal Divorce at Gaiety (? PC141)

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1897

Milton? (Dempsey in 1909, BB105),

Ovid's Metamorphosis, [e]

Alvarez's grammar of Latin verse [CPC26 says 1900?],

Cicero, [es]

de Witt,

Coppee,

Milton,

Gray, [e]

Goldsmith [e] (BB129)

Meredith- Ordeal of Richard Feverel, [e] Tragic Comedians (JJ2-53),

Hardy "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" Tess [e], Jude [e] (SJ74),

Kempis Imitation [e] (PC142);

St Alphonsus Liguori, recommended by Sodality Manual (PoA);

?Ingomar, Lady of Lyons (PoA97);

English bio of Rousseau? (SH40)

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1898

Livy, [es]

Horace, [es]

Erckmann-Chatrian (L'Invasion, L'Ami Fritz, Le Juif Polonais SJ57), [French]

Corneille,

Julius Caesar (English??),

Macauley (BB139); [e] [e]

Hall Caine (CW22), [e]

Machiavelli's History of Florence (PC145), [e]

Ruskin's Mornings in Florence (PC152);

Bulwer-Lytton's Lady of Lyons (PoA); [e]

Yeats? (inspired "Moods"?)

likely: Yeats-Russell-Eglinton "Literary Ideals in Ireland" [more]

???20 March 1898-- Ibsen's 70th birthday (no London productions since 1897's Duck and Doll's (MM796),

Shaw's "Quintessence"???; [extract]

Ibsen "Master Builder" (SJ84)

11 Feb 1899 Ibsen night at L&H

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1899 (cf 100 popular)

imitating Carlyle, [e] Newman, Macauley, De Quincey [e], Ruskin, etc (SJ91);

Countess Cathleen,

When We Dead Awaken (SJ95), Doll's House [e], League of Youth (SJ115), Hedda Gabler (SJ130), Wild Duck [e] (CW42), Ghosts (CW45), [e] Pillars of Society (CW46), [e] Enemy of the People (CW63), [e] John Gabriel Borkman (CW66)

Shaw's "Quintessence of Ibsenism" (CW48)

Matthew Arnold (negatively CW26), [e] [e]

Wilkie Collins "Heart and Science" (CW28),

Calderon (negatively CW40), [e]

Haddon Chambers,

Douglas Jerrold,

Sudermann, [lieder]

Lessing (also SH33), [e] [e]

Wagner (CW40),

Macbeth,

Dante (CW42),

Rostand's Cyrano, [e]

[Beoerly],

Zola's Coupeau (CW43),

Beerbohm Tree (CW44),

Tasso (CW45, CPC120),

Turgenieff (CW64)

Sudermann's Magda (PC, SJ87 wrong year)

Aristotle: Poetics (CPC3), [es]

Pater,

Yeats,

Blake,

Symbolists (CPC9)

Phillips' Paolo and Francesca (CPC4, JJ2 58, [info]

but cf: late Dec22: VI.B.10.86 "SD said he had read Motley's Rise of Dutch Republic (had read title)")

Maeterlinck: Allodine and Palomides, Melisande and Pelleas [French] (PC160)

D'Annunzio: Virgins of the Rocks (CPC108) [e-Ital]

Symons: Symbolist Movement in Literature (pub 1899)

Yeats: Wind among the Reeds (JJ2 83) [e]

Pinero (dropped from Fortnightly, later: CW89) [e]

Brandes? (CPC116) [Danish]

Machiavelli, [es]

Maffei,

Monti (CPC120)

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1900

National Library until closing at 10pm--

Tolstoy's short stories, [e]

Turgenev, A Sportsman's Notebook (SJ98) [e?]

Ibsen: Wild Duck, Little Eyolf;

D'Annunzio: La Gioconda (PC160), La Citta Morta [e] (JJ2 77)

Hardy, [es]

Meredith,

Turgenieff (CW64-- bluff???)

Hauptmann's The Coming of Peace (PC164)

D'Annunzio's The Child of Pleasure (PC167), La Gloria, Sogno da Tramonto (PC168)

imports: D'Annunzio,

Verlaine,

Maeterlinck, [e] [e] [e] [e]

Sudermann's Frau Sorge, Es War, Geschwister;

George Moore: Evelyn Innes, Sister Theresa, Celibates (SJ98)

?gift from Vire: Cyrano (SJ114)

dislike of Shakespeare [es] (SJ100), of Milton [es] (JJ2 59)

Bruno (SJ121)

Blake (SJ99)

Cavalcanti? (JJ2 59, PoA176)

Aquinas? (JJ2 60)

GM Mancini "Elementa Philosophiae ad mentem D. Thomae Aquinatis" (PoA176)

Manzoni, [e]

Petrarch,

Castiglione (CPC120)

Aristotle's Poetics, Psychology (PoA176),

Epictetus? (PoA187) [es] [es]

plays: Martyn's Heather Field,

Moore and Martyn's Bending of the Bough (CW68),

Diarmuid and Grainne

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1901

Theosophists: Blavatsky,

Olcott (Theosophical Studies-- PC172, Buddhist Catechism JJ2 76),

Besant,

Leadbeater,

de Molinos,

St John of the Cross [e] (PoA04),

St Theresa, [e]

St Catherine, [e]

Thomas a Kempis,

Paracelsus (SJ131)

Tolstoy's Fruit of Enlightenment (PC172)

Huysmans' La Bas;

Bygmester Solness (PC160) Nar Vi Dode Vagnar (PC172)

Horton's Book of Images (PC171)

Frith "Life of G Bruno" (CW69)

Bjornson,

Giacosa,

Echegaray (CW70)

Bjornson's Beyond Our Power (JJ2 75)

George Moore: Esther Waters, Celibates, Vain Fortune (CW71, PC172, SJ98 wrong year)

D'Annunzio's Il Fuoco (CW71 highest achievement) "Epiphany of Fire" subheading

Yeats' Wind among the Reeds [e], Adoration of the Magi;

Moore's Esther Waters,

Flaubert's Madame Bovary [e]

Jakobsen,

Pater (CW71) [e] [e]

Dowland,

Henry VIII,

Mangan (SJ162)

antipathy for Browning (SJ166) [e]

Hauptmann "Vor Sonnenaufgang, Michael Kramer (CW72)

Hauptmann Hanneles Himmelfahrt (JJ2 76)

Nietzsche? Michael Kramer (SJ160)

Dante's Purgatorio,

Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata [again] (Italian) (PC174) [e]

Dante,

Leopardi (CPC120) [Italian]

Fornaciari "Disegno Storico della Letteratura Italiana" (CPC121) -> Bruno, Vico

WM Adams The House of Hidden Places (Egyptology),

Mangan,

Yeats' John Sherman (PC176)

Whitman (quoted- Shine and Dark) [e]

Coleridge, [es]

Matthew Arnold, [e] [e]

Bradley on WS,

WP Ker,

Saintsbury,

Dowden [e] (CPC25),

Corneille, [e]

Moliere, [es]

Boileau,

Fenelon, [e]

Voltaire, [es]

Lanson,

Taine,

Brunetiere (CPC26),

Hamlet,

Sidney, [e]

Spenser, [poems]

Bacon,

Milton (CPC26),

Petrarch,

Dante,

Castiglione's Courtier, [e]

Leopardi,

Alfieri's Oreste (CPC26)

Aquinas via Boedder or Rickaby [e] or De Wulf? (CPC36)

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1902

Dante (JJ2 75) [es]

Flaubert's Tentation (JJ2 75)

Verlaine Les Poetes Maudits,

Fogazzaro's Piccolo (PC160)

Baudelaire (CW75),

Novalis (CW76), [e]

Wagner's Parsifal (CW76),

Poe, [poems]

Swedenborg (PoA04), [e] [e]

Leopardi,

Dowland (CW80)

Thomas Davis, [e]

D'Arcy MacGee,

Denis Florence M'Carthy [e] [e],

Samuiel Ferguson, [e]

T.D. Sullivan,

T.W. Rolleston (CW85) [poem]

D'Annunzio (SJ166)

W.H. Mallock "Is Life Worth Living?" hated style (SJ167)

prophecies of Joachim Abbas (PC180, PoA04),

Cornelius Agrippa? (PoA) [e]

scorns Balzac (JJ2 101) [es]

John Mitchel's Mangan,

Yeats on Ferguson,

Lionel Johnson on Mangan (CPC14-15)

Jacopone da Todi (CPC28)

anti: Cowper [e], Addison [e] (Sheehy, ?, JJIR10)

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1903

Riders to the Sea (PC206), [e]

Dujardin's Lauriers (PC207)

Ben Jonson, [poems]

Aristotle (JJ2 120) [es]

Butler's Way of All Flesh [e] (PC211)

FJ Myers Human Personality and its Survival... (PC212)

Father Browne's lectures on Homer (PC217)

Moore's The Untilled Field (PC222)

Benjamin Tucker, [e]

Nietzsche [es] (JJ2 142)

possibly: Most, Malatesta, Stirner [e?], Bakunin, Kropotkin [e], Elisee Reclus, Spencer (JJ2 142)

Rimbaud (CPC29),

Ibsen's Peer Gynt [e], Brand,

Flaubert's St Julien, Bouvard et Pecuchet, Dictionary (CPC29),

Baudelaire,

Verlaine,

de Nerval,

Heredia,

Mallarme (CPC30)

anti: Huysmans (CPC29) [e]

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1904

Moore's The Lake (PC221), Untilled Field (SL44 11-19 to SJ)

Michael Sendivogius? (JJ2 146, PoA04)

Lassalle, Aristotle (SL44 11-19 to SJ)

Henry James: only "Madonna of the Future" [e] (SL45), Portrait of a Lady [e] (CPC52)

Renan: Souvenirs (SL45)

Dowden's Life of Shelley? (CPC40)

Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man (DD62) [e]

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1905

SL55: Renan's Life of Jesus, [e]

Correlli Sorrows of Satan, not Siren Voices

SL58: Henry James ("consecutively" [es]) "Confidence", [e]

Anatole France "Monsieur Bergeret",

"Peter Simple" by Marryat,

Hauptmann's Elga,

Heijermans,

?De Amicis

D'Annunzio's "Light under the Bushel" (to SJ 3-15-05)

[Next: literary tastes]

Ulysses:
chapters: summary : anchors : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12a 12b 13 14a 14b 15a 15b 15c 15d 16a 16b 17a 17b 18a 18b
notes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
reference: Bloom : clocktime : prices : schemata : Tower : riddles : errors : Homeric parallels : [B-L Odyssey] : Eolus tropes : parable : Oxen : Circe : 1904 : Thom's : Gold Cup : Seaside Girls : M'appari : acatalectic : search
riddles: overview : Rudy : condom : Gerty : Hades : Strand : murder : Eccles
maps: Ulysses : WRocks : Strand : VR tour : aerial tour : Dublin : Leinster : Ireland : Europe
editing: etexts : lapses : Gabler : capitals : commas : compounds : deletes : punct : typists
drafts: prequel : Proteus : Cyclops : Circe
closereadings: notes : Oxen : Circe

Finnegans Wake:
txt: [I.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 II.1 2 3 4 III.1 2 3 4 IV] : [HTML]
shorter: main : I.1-4 : 5-8 : II.1-2 : 3-4 : III.1-2 : 3 : 4 : IV
reference: thunder : Quinet : waves : [MP3 ALP] : FrALP : ItalALP : ch4 digest : Finn's Hotel : JAJquotes : search
drafts: NewGame : ROC : Kev : B&P : T&I : HCE : Mmlj : Cad : Rev : Pacata
closereadings: notes : ROC : T&S : Kev : B&P : T&I : HCE : Mmlj : Cad
theory: AI : archetypes : WakeOS : notes : origin : Scribble

Portrait:
ref: main : ch1 : ch1 notes : ch2 : 3 : 4 : 5a : 5b : Pinamonti : [notes] : [Cave] : [Gabler]

SHero: outline : quotes : PoA04

Dubliners:
etexts: Sis : Sis04 : Sis05 : Enc : Araby : Evel : After : 2Gall : Board : LitCl : Cntr : Clay : Pain : Ivy : Moth : Grace : Dead
guides: main : [Cave] : [Peng]

Other:
Exiles: Ex1 : 2 : 3

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