Two major newly-discovered Joyce manuscripts will be on display within yards of each other in Dublin on Bloomsday, next Saturday. Their existence was unsuspected by the majority of Joyceans on Bloomsday last. It was certainly not suspected by the present writer, who confidently predicted on several occasions that no further important Ulysses manuscripts would come to light. (Having already eaten my one and only hat on the appearance of the "Circe" manuscript, I am now casting uncomfortably about for another suitable item of clothing to consume after the announcement of the imminent sale of yet another important document.)
`Eumaeus' auction
As is by now well known, the "Circe" manuscript of Ulysses is safely in the possession of the National Library following its purchase in New York last December, and some of it is currently on exhibition at the Library in Kildare Street. On Bloomsday, just down the road at Sotheby's offices in Molesworth Street, the manuscript of a newly-discovered draft of the next episode in the book, "Eumaeus", will be on display for a day, prior to its sale by auction in London on July 10th.
It is extraordinary that two such documents should appear within so short a time of each other, though it is possible that the "satisfactory" price of $1.4 million obtained for the "Circe" manuscript might have something to do with the sudden appearance of this one. However, I would still believe, offering another hostage to fortune, that there really are not that many Joyce manuscripts lying around in people's attics and that the current little flourish is unlikely to be repeated.
In the "Eumaeus" episode of Ulysses, Bloom and Stephen are recovering in a cabman's shelter near Butt Bridge from their exertions in Nighttown, as detailed in the previous episode. Little happens in "Eumaeus": idle chat is exchanged between the two, and with the other washed-up occupants of the shelter, which is reputedly run by Skin-the-Goat, the man who got away from the Invincibles after the Phoenix Park murders of 1882. Eventually, Bloom and Stephen leave to head for Bloom's home in Eccles Street.
Cliche-ridden
"Eumaeus" is perhaps the most pointless episode in Ulysses, and this pointlessness is reflected in its style, which is meandering, cliche-ridden, ostensibly unstructured and aimless. It would be correct to call it digressive, except that there is nothing to digress from. The style is meant to reflect the tiredness and flatness of the characters at the end of a long and tempestuous day.
In the eyes of some readers, it does this somewhat too successfully, inducing in the reader feelings all too similar to those of the characters. In fact, though, the "tired" style conceals miracles of verbal infelicity, depths of linguistic misadventure that make the episode, at the very least, a comic masterpiece. Through being misused, the cliches take on a flickering, ghostly life: one becomes aware again of their literal meaning, often used in a comically incongruous context.
Pleasingly, the new "Eumaeus" manuscript seems to be quite different from the "Circe" document. "Circe" is quite a late draft; while it contains much new material and shows Joyce continually expanding his text, nonetheless the basic form and "style" (not quite the right word) of the episode have been well established by this point and will not be significantly altered.
"Eumaeus" appears to be a very early draft, where the style and shape of the episode are, perhaps, yet not fully formed. Unlike "Circe", which is written out on one side only of discontinuous large sheets, this draft is written continuously on both sides of the pages of one small notebook, making 44 pages in all. While this is considerably more than the 27 pages (plus various additional passages on the backs of many of the pages), of the "Circe" manuscript, the "Eumaeus" notebook is a good deal smaller and may well contain fewer words.
Large claims are being made for this manuscript, claims that remain to be substantiated. It has been alleged, for instance, that this very early draft may show that the characteristic style of "Eumaeus" is a later elaboration from an originally quite plainly written text, rather as the "style" of Finnegans Wake became elaborated from comparatively straightforward early drafts.
However, this is not necessarily an accurate account of the way Finnegans Wake was composed and secondly, those small portions of the present text that I have seen do not seem at all far away from what one would recognise as a "Eumaean" style. Much more examination would be required before such claims can be justified.
Early draft
The amount expected to be raised by the manuscript is a strikingly high maximum of £1.2 million sterling. Considering that "Circe" went for $1.4 million, this would be substantially more than for the latter manuscript. It will be interesting to see whether this early draft of an episode which, while very fascinating and rewarding in its own right, is certainly far less crucial to Ulysses than "Circe" will actually make a higher figure than the manuscript of its more celebrated companion. The National Library has already indicated it is unlikely to be interested. With one major Joyce document now under its belt, it is entitled to spend its limited funds elsewhere. So it may well be that there will be no Irish involvement in this sale.
At the same time, if some philanthropist like the stately, plump Sir Anthony O'Reilly should be looking for a good home for an adorable Joyce manuscript, I know just the place . . .