posted on 11 May 2017

Ulysses by James Joyce published by Folio Society Books and illustrated by Palladino

For many years now I have had a ready answer for that parlour game where you are required to name the single book you’d choose to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island. For me the answer is simple and uncontested – I’d take James Joyce’s Ulysses. I’ve read the book numerous times over the past 35 years and parts of it even more often and I still feel I’ve only ever scratched the surface of its richness and complexity. There’s no denying that the book is ‘difficult’ but it repays you many times over if you persist and once you’ve found your way into it, it stops being hard work and becomes an intellectual delight – and it’s also fantastically entertaining and funny.

I always hesitate to use the word ‘masterpiece’ about anything but there are some works of art that are undeniably in that category and, just like great paintings, great books in their original first editions are a limited supply and getting your hands on one is impossible for an ordinary Joe like me. I would dearly love to own one but I never will and so the decision by the Folio Society books to publish a beautiful leather-bound, limited edition to celebrate the centenary of Bloomsday (the day on which all the action of the book takes place) has given me the chance to get my hands on a truly exceptional edition.

Originally published in 2004 the limited edition sold out a long time ago and so you will only find them now on the second hand market where prices have steadily risen over the years. The book is worth trying to find however and not just for the excellent design by Jeff Clements (full blue goatskin covered boards and gold upper edge page block) but because the text is a facsimile of the 1926 second edition which includes key corrections to the first edition.

In addition the book is rather nicely supplemented by a remarkable and understated suite of eighteen etchings by the exceptional contemporary Italian artist Mimmo Paladino. His etchings, using gold and black, are not direct, figurative representations of the contents of the book but work alongside the text in providing a further layer of meaning beyond that of the words on the page.

The whole package includes a buckram clam-shell case that is designed to not only protect but to display the book should you wish to do so. It’s books like this that mark out clearly just how different a physical book can be from a digital text – this is a sensuous and tactile artefact; a book to read and a work of art to admire.

Terry Potter

May2017