A trawl of the Irish Times archives reveals a lot about how “great” literature is seen at time of publication. Here is how the newspaper viewed James Joyce, giant of 20th-century literature, in 1923. “It is extremely difficult to say exactly what place in literature will be occupied by Mr James Joyce,” ran an appraisal on May 5th, 1923, three years after Ulysses, now his most famous work, was published.

Source: The Irish Times April 29, 2021 04:52 UTC