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	Podcast:		The Essay
	Episode:		Nuala O'Connor on Penelope
	Category:		Society & Culture
	Duration:		00:13:35
	Publish Date:		2022-02-04 23:15:00
	Description:		Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. This February marks the centenary of the novel's publication. Reading Ulysses is a famously challenging experience for most readers, so can our Essayists help? In the final essay of the series, novelist Nuala O'Connor chooses the last episode of the book - Penelope - which is the one Nuala discovered first. In Penelope, we hear Molly Bloom, the wife of the novel's main protagonist, speak to us. In the extract Nuala selects, Molly lies in bed, top to tail with her husband. We hear Molly consider him and his antics - and muse on what husbands, and men in general, mean to her. Nuala examines some of her favourite phrases from the passage; she reveals some of the parallels she can see in Joyce's own biography; and she tells us why the novel's final words might prove the ultimate key to unlocking the book. Presenter: Nuala O'Connor Producer: Camellia Sinclair
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