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Sound of Bloomsday comes 100 years later
Audiobooks mark centenary of Joyce's famed literary walk
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday June 7, 2004
The Guardian

You wait a century for a recording of every word of Ulysses and then 54 CDs of James Joyce's masterpiece come along at once.

Rival versions - one on 22 CDs, the other on 32 - of the complete text are launched this month to mark the anniversary of the book acknowledged as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century but also as one of the most started, least finished, books in the world.

A day isn't long enough for either. The Naxos audiobooks version, read by two actors, runs for about 27 hours. The version by RTÉ, Irish state radio, which was originally recorded more than 20 years ago to mark the centenary of Joyce's birth using half the actors in Ireland, lasts for more than 30 hours.

Nicholas Soames, founder publisher at Naxos audiobooks and Anne Marie O'Callaghan, the producer for RTÉ's version, only discovered a few months ago that they would be rivals.

Ms O'Callaghan, whose version will retail for €100 (£66.40), said they were so different there should be room for both.

Mr Soames, whose set will cost £85, said: "There are things you do to make money, and things you do to ensure your place in heaven. My hope is that when I arrive at the gate I'll say 'I got every word of Ulysses onto CD' and they'll wave me straight in."

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