A hand written draft of an episode from James Joyce's 'Ulysses' has been sold at auction.
A draft chapter from James Joyce's novel, 'Ulysses', has been sold at auction in London. The manuscript was sold to a private buyer for £861,250. It had been anticipated that the price would reach over a million pounds. A death mask of James Joyce was also up for auction and was bought by the National Library of Ireland for £55,000.
Eumaeus is said to be a major piece of the evolution of the text which many scholars regard as the most important novel of the twentieth century.
The heavily reworked manuscript titled 'Eumeo’ is forty four pages in length and was written between 1916 and 1920. The final novel was published in 1922.
At the Joyce International Summer School held at Newman House in Dublin, Joyce expert Dr Fritz Senn, gave his assessment of the work and its importance.
Another manuscript was purchased last year by the National Museum of Ireland for in excess of one million pounds.
At Christie’s auction house, ‘Horse and Rider’ by Leonardo Da Vinci was sold for £7,400,000.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 July 2001. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
