The Marks
This section focuses on the marks which are relevant to Joyce and Ulysses. Other marks are mostly ignored.
We have picked out 14 sets of marks or text passages, which we see as presenting a strong case, in combination, for Joyce’s use of the Sandycove Atlas.
Each of the 14 sections cover three topics: The Marks, The Texts and Discussion.
The Marks sets out what the actual marks are and how they relate to the text of Ulysses. An enlarged, high-resolution image is provided for each set of marks.
The Texts provides the main passages from Ulysses which we see as relevant to each set of marks.1
Discussion addresses the issues of how the marks relate to the texts and when they might have been made. We deliberately do not go into the many implications the marks could have for Joyce studies if they are recognised as genuine.
1 The Ulysses texts have all been taken from Andrea Moro’s admirable concordance, click here.
1 Pyrrhic Wars
The MarksAt the very beginning of the second episode of Ulysses, Stephen Daedalus is taking a class of boys through a lesson about the Pyrrhic Wars, waged in Southern Italy from about 280BC. The two towns mentioned in the text are both marked in pencil in the...
2 The gorescarred book
The Marks2 NestorJoyce has Daedalus consult ‘the gorescarred book’ to check where the Pyrrhic battle of 279BC was fought. Almost any history book or atlas has a metaphorical claim to being ‘gorescarred’ but the Sandycove Atlas also has a blood-red stripe from top to...
3 Battle of the Yellow Sea
The Marks3 CalypsoThe teacher’s marks inside and the scar of spilt ink on the back support the idea that the Sandycove Atlas was a “book of maps” which was used in a school. Another mark dates its active usage to 1904. This relates to the Russo-Japanese War, a major...
4 English Seaside Towns
The MarksAs James Joyce was casting round for what to do with his life, one idea was to become a singer. On 3 June 1904 he wrote to his friend Oliver St John Gogarty saying: ‘My idea for July and August is this – to get Dolmetsch to make me a lute and to coast the...
5 Odysseus’ Journey
The MarksOn Plate 3 (Europe) of the Sandycove Atlas there is a faint red crayon line which runs from near the location of Troy, on the Dardanelles, southwards through the Aegean, then swings west and clips Crete to die out before Malta. Also, north of Sicily there is...
6 Kandahar
The MarksPlate 4 Asia has just two crayon marks, both in Afghanistan, under Kandahar and Herat. Whoever made the marks probably wanted to reflect on the Second Afghan War of 1880. The then General ‘Bobsy’ Roberts led 10,000 men across 300 miles of rough terrain from...
7 Cappoquin
The MarksPlate 10, the map of Ireland has crayon marks under four small towns (Cappoquin, Ballinasloe, Lanesborough and Rathowen), and an obscure seaside resort, Rosses. Cappoquin is underlined in blue and all the others in red. The Blackwater River is clearly...
8 ‘That place on the map’
The MarksJoyce’s letter of 12 September 1904 provides direct evidence a) that Joyce and Nora spent time together looking at a map of some kind; b) that ‘the map’ was in Nora’s possession at least some of the time in September 1904; c) that Joyce and Nora actively used...
9 Trieste
The MarksTrieste, where Joyce and his family spent 10 years, is underlined on Plate 16 Italy. So are many other ports and seaside resorts. At the time the Atlas was published, Trieste was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not an Italian city as it is today.The...
10 The Hangman’s Letter
The MarksPlate 3 Europe has blue crayon marks under six Baltic ports and cities – Copenhagen, Dantzig, Konigsberg, Tilsit, Riga and Revel. The only one of these mentioned in Ulysses is Tilsit, as the surname of a murder victim, Jessie Tilsit. We suggest Joyce could...
11 The Cataract of Lahore
The MarksThere are at least 20 marks on Plate 24 India. Four are in blue crayon, 14 in orange, one place (Lahore) is underlined in both colours, and the Portuguese enclave of Goa is underlined in pencil. I suggest the blue marks were made by Joyce.The TextsPenelopeGod...
12 Blotted address
The MarksAt the very end of the Sandycove Atlas, on the right-hand endpaper, there is a blotted address. Such defacements were common in the days before widespread telephone access, when postal services still reigned supreme. The TextsHades Who is that chap behind...
13 Virtual Atlases
The MarksAt least twice in Ulysses, Bloom’s train of thought only makes sense if he is thinking in terms of a world atlas. His first memory of his father is of consulting a map of Europe to identify business opportunities. Later, ‘Woolgathering’ as an old salt rambles...
14 Atlas in view
The MarksThis section is about the Atlas as a whole, rather than particular marks or plates. James Joyce was not the only person who defaced it. As suggested above, Nora may have made some marks. Francis Irwin, the Ulster-born, real-life headmaster of Clifton School,...