Bloom's Blog 2022 - 7 ~ Nora Barnacle's Attitude toward "Ulysses"

Joyce inscribed one of the first copies of Ulysses and gave it to his life-long partner (they wouldn’t be married until 1931), Nora Barnacle, in the presence of one of Joyce’s friends, Arthur Power. Nora immediately offered to sell the book to Power. There is no record as to whether Power ever accepted the offer. Nora was completely indifferent about the novel and always maintained that she never read it. “Sure why would I bother?” she once said, “It’s enough he talks about that book, and he’s at it all the time”.