138 episodes

Season 1 for... Ulysses by James Joyce. The unabridged text, read by more than a hundred writers, artists, comedians and musicians
Season 2 for... Bloomcast. A deep-dive into the text with Adam Biles, Alice McCrum and Lex Paulson, as well as other bonus episodes.
To celebrate a hundred years since Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s Ulysses, and to encourage readers to engage (or re-engage) with this spirited, funny, life-changing book, Shakespeare and Company, Paris—in partnership with Penguin Classics and Hay Festival—created an ensemble recording of the unabridged text, released as a free podcast between the centenary of the publication on 2nd February 2022 and Bloomsday on June 16 2022.
Read by more than a hundred writers, artists, comedians and musicians from all over the world— including Sally Rooney, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Fry, Pete Buttigieg, Kae Tempest, Ben Okri, Ali Smith, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley and many, many more... (full cast list below)—Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses is a polyphonic and diverse celebration of this Modernist masterwork.
Conceived and produced by Adam Biles, Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris
Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com
Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses
Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home
Featuring (in order):
Will Self
Jeanette Winterson
Paul Murray
Ishion Hutchinson
Caoilinn Hughes
Eddie Izzard
Lola Peploe
Nathan Englander
Joe Dunthorne
Kate Stables
Jarred McGinnis
Nicholson Baker
Richard Barnett
Amy Sackville
Chigozie Obioma
Erica Wagner
Patrick Marber
Claire-Louise Bennett
Aleksandar Hemon
Ryan Van Winkle
Cressida Brown
Holly Pester
Adam Thirlwell
Catherine Lacey
Ciaran Farrell
Lauren Elkin
Andrew Hankinson
Conor Horgan
Andy Miller
Preti Taneja
Salena Godden
Sinéad Gleeson
Luke Kennard
Sophie Gorman
Nicole Flattery
John Freeman
Aysegul Savas
Daniel Levin Becker
John Butler
John Mitchinson
Sigrid Rausing
Max Porter
Eimear McBride
Keith Ridgway
Philip Hoare
Deborah Landau
Karthika Nair
Cerys Matthews
DBC Pierre
Katharina Volckmer 
Mark O’Connell
Marcel Theroux
Sylvia Whitman & David Delannet
Lenny Kaye
Sarah Churchwell
Olivia Laing
Katie Kitamura
Ali Smith
Keri Walsh
Lesley Blume
Patrick Hastings
Ben Okri
Colm Toibin
Chloe Aridjis
Stephen Fry
Douglas Stuart
Pete Buttigieg
Tara Mulholland
Paul Muldoon
S&Co Table Readers (Anne Bielec, Ben Brown, Amanda Dennis, Linda Fallon, Heather Heartley, Octavia Horgan, Conor Lee Bourke, Lex Paulson, Kate Poston, Francesca Reece)
David Keenan
Tom McCarthy
David Szalay
Jesse Ball
Carter Bays
James Gregor
Will Burns
Declan McCavana
Greg Proops
Jennifer Canada
Sam Jordison
Eloise Millar
Hollie McNish
Michael Pedersen
Jonathan Safran Foer
Sasha Foer
Ethan Hawke
Rob Doyle
Roisin Kiberd
Lucy Sante
Caitlinn O Keefe
Deborah Levy
Meena Kandasamy
Joanna Lumley
Susan Philipz
Sylvia Whitman
Bonnie Greer
Emilie Pine
Margaret Atwood
Kae Tempest
Lou Doillon
Sally Rooney


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses by James Joyce Shakespeare and Company

    • Arts
    • 4.3 • 26 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Season 1 for... Ulysses by James Joyce. The unabridged text, read by more than a hundred writers, artists, comedians and musicians
Season 2 for... Bloomcast. A deep-dive into the text with Adam Biles, Alice McCrum and Lex Paulson, as well as other bonus episodes.
To celebrate a hundred years since Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s Ulysses, and to encourage readers to engage (or re-engage) with this spirited, funny, life-changing book, Shakespeare and Company, Paris—in partnership with Penguin Classics and Hay Festival—created an ensemble recording of the unabridged text, released as a free podcast between the centenary of the publication on 2nd February 2022 and Bloomsday on June 16 2022.
Read by more than a hundred writers, artists, comedians and musicians from all over the world— including Sally Rooney, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Fry, Pete Buttigieg, Kae Tempest, Ben Okri, Ali Smith, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley and many, many more... (full cast list below)—Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses is a polyphonic and diverse celebration of this Modernist masterwork.
Conceived and produced by Adam Biles, Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris
Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com
Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses
Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home
Featuring (in order):
Will Self
Jeanette Winterson
Paul Murray
Ishion Hutchinson
Caoilinn Hughes
Eddie Izzard
Lola Peploe
Nathan Englander
Joe Dunthorne
Kate Stables
Jarred McGinnis
Nicholson Baker
Richard Barnett
Amy Sackville
Chigozie Obioma
Erica Wagner
Patrick Marber
Claire-Louise Bennett
Aleksandar Hemon
Ryan Van Winkle
Cressida Brown
Holly Pester
Adam Thirlwell
Catherine Lacey
Ciaran Farrell
Lauren Elkin
Andrew Hankinson
Conor Horgan
Andy Miller
Preti Taneja
Salena Godden
Sinéad Gleeson
Luke Kennard
Sophie Gorman
Nicole Flattery
John Freeman
Aysegul Savas
Daniel Levin Becker
John Butler
John Mitchinson
Sigrid Rausing
Max Porter
Eimear McBride
Keith Ridgway
Philip Hoare
Deborah Landau
Karthika Nair
Cerys Matthews
DBC Pierre
Katharina Volckmer 
Mark O’Connell
Marcel Theroux
Sylvia Whitman & David Delannet
Lenny Kaye
Sarah Churchwell
Olivia Laing
Katie Kitamura
Ali Smith
Keri Walsh
Lesley Blume
Patrick Hastings
Ben Okri
Colm Toibin
Chloe Aridjis
Stephen Fry
Douglas Stuart
Pete Buttigieg
Tara Mulholland
Paul Muldoon
S&Co Table Readers (Anne Bielec, Ben Brown, Amanda Dennis, Linda Fallon, Heather Heartley, Octavia Horgan, Conor Lee Bourke, Lex Paulson, Kate Poston, Francesca Reece)
David Keenan
Tom McCarthy
David Szalay
Jesse Ball
Carter Bays
James Gregor
Will Burns
Declan McCavana
Greg Proops
Jennifer Canada
Sam Jordison
Eloise Millar
Hollie McNish
Michael Pedersen
Jonathan Safran Foer
Sasha Foer
Ethan Hawke
Rob Doyle
Roisin Kiberd
Lucy Sante
Caitlinn O Keefe
Deborah Levy
Meena Kandasamy
Joanna Lumley
Susan Philipz
Sylvia Whitman
Bonnie Greer
Emilie Pine
Margaret Atwood
Kae Tempest
Lou Doillon
Sally Rooney


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    BLOOMCAST | HOLIDAY SPECIAL

    BLOOMCAST | HOLIDAY SPECIAL

    This December—six months after saying goodbye—Bloomcast is back for a Holiday Special! Join Alice, Lex and Adam as they answer your questions, play games, tease each other, drink (tea, whiskey, Gimber) and leap off Forty Foot and into Ulysses one more (one last?) time…
    *
    Bloomcast is a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 
     
    Please share your thoughts on the book and anything you’d like to hear us discuss: ulysses@shakespeareandcompany.com
     
    A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 
     
    In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.
     
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 19 min
    Bonus Episode: Lex Paulson on Cicero and the Future of Democracy

    Bonus Episode: Lex Paulson on Cicero and the Future of Democracy

    A few weeks back we had our dear friend, Bloomsday MC, and eminent Bloomcaster Prof. Lex Paulson as a guest in the library to give a talk on Cicero, drawing on his book Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, recently published by Cambridge University Press.
    Anyone who has listened to Bloomcast will know that Lex is not just a great speaker, but also a great thinker, and this talk is both an exquisite example of his work, and an insight into some of the ideas that shaped his particular and insightful approach to James Joyce’s masterwork.
    We were so pleased to have Lex with us that evening, and are delighted to be able to release this talk on Bloomsday. Enjoy!


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr
    BLOOMCAST | HOLIDAY SPECIAL | THE DEAD

    BLOOMCAST | HOLIDAY SPECIAL | THE DEAD

    Our Bloomcasters reconvene on January 6th, “Joycension Day”, to discuss The Dead : the final piece in Joyce’s Dubliners, described by T. S. Eliot as "one of the greatest short stories ever written". 
    Leaning heavily as always on the wisdom of honorary Bloomcasters Declan Kiberd and Colm Toibin, they cover orchestrated dinner parties, ego death, the circularity of human life, the music of words, and much more.
    Carrying forth a Bloomcast tradition, they also play a festive game, populating competing dinner parties with characters from Dubliners and Ulysses.
    Happy New Year (and Joycension Day)!
    *
    Mentioned in the podcast:
    ‘The Dead’, by James Joyce: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dubliners/The_Dead
    Prof. Declan Kiberd, ‘Dubliners: The First 100 Years,’ at the James Joyce Center (2014):
    https://youtu.be/A5qhK7LH6co?si=1zFc7EH7AOpuL1mq
    Dubliners, with an introduction by Colm Toibin (Canongate): https://canongate.co.uk/books/1488-dubliners/
    London Review of Books. ‘Arruginated’, by Colm Toibin: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n17/colm-toibin/arruginated
    John Huston’s 1987 film adaptation of ‘The Dead’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkos62UPwVk
    “The Lass of Aughrim,” from the Huston film:
    https://youtu.be/I1CP5Lz2iHE?si=yfxE-koZ3PVngWIc
    Annie Baker’s Infinite Life: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/infinite-life/ 
    Circles by Ralph Waldo Emerson: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2944/2944-h/2944-h.htm#link2H_4_0010  
    *
    Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 
    Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.
    Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 40 min
    Patrick Hastings, The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses

    Patrick Hastings, The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses

    In anticipation of the first episode of Friends of Shakespeare and Company Read Ulysses this Wednesday, we were delighted to talk to former S&Co tumbleweed Patrick Hastings, and the creator of UlyssesGuide.com, about The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses, his essential companion to this modernist classic.
    Buy The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781421443492/the-guide-to-james-joyces-ulysses
    *
    SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURES
    All episodes of Friends of Shakespeare Read Ulysses are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.
    Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/shakespeare-and-company-writers-books-and-paris/id1040121937?l=en
    Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandco
    In addition, if you want to spend even more time at Shakespeare and Company, a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of the bookshop's interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop’s non-profit, created to fund our noncommercial activities—from the upstairs reading library, to the writers-in-residence program, to our charitable collaborations, and our free events.
    *
    Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com
    Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses
    Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time
    Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.
    Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1
    Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/
    Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.
    Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS
    Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 
    Music production by Adrien Chicot.
    Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/
    Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr
    Bloomcast │Episode 1│Telemachus, Nestor, and Proteus

    Bloomcast │Episode 1│Telemachus, Nestor, and Proteus

    Bloomcast │Episode 1│Telemachus, Nestor, and Proteus
     
    Welcome to Bloomcast, a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 
     
    Voilà! Here is episode one, in which they discuss: the reasons to read Ulysses (and how not to); Joyce's ambitions, gifts, and wiles; the historical, cultural, and biographical context of the novel; the women that brought his epic to life; as well as the first three episodes of the novel,, featuring Stephen Dedalus, Buck Mulligan, William Shakespeare, Leo Taxil, and the most famous nose-picking in Western literature. 
     
    Please share your thoughts on the book and anything you’d like to hear us discuss: ulysses@shakespeareandcompany.com
     
    A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 
     
    In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.
     
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.
    *
    SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURES
    All episodes of our Ulysses podcast are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.
    Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/shakespeare-and-company/id6442697026
    Subscribe on Spotify here: https://anchor.fm/sandco
    Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandco
    In addition a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of our author interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop’s non-profit.
    *
    Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com
    Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses
    Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.net
    Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time
    Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.
    Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.
    Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1
    Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/
    Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.
    Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS
    Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 
    Music production by Adrien Chicot.
    Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/
    Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 43 min
    Bloomcast │ Episode 2 │ Calypso, Lotus Eaters, and Hades

    Bloomcast │ Episode 2 │ Calypso, Lotus Eaters, and Hades

     
    Welcome to Bloomcast, a ten-part plunge into James Joyce's Ulysses presented by Adam Biles, Alice McCrum, and Lex Paulson, live from Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Join them as they muddle through this radical, sublime, and often misunderstood novel first published one hundred years ago, in 1922. 
     
    In episode two, your hosts provide zippy overviews of Calypso, Lotus Eaters and Hades; respond to listener comments, discuss the centenary; and mull over the arrival of Leopold Bloom (Who is he? Why do we follow him to the outhouse?), animal consciousness, reincarnation, and the point of interior monologue. Guided by Kevin Birmingham, Montaigne, Aristotle, Samuel Beckett, Homer, William James, and (as ever) Frank Budgen, they reflect too on how trauma lives within us, what Bloom can teach us about life and death, and the difference between fictional and historical narratives.
     
    Please share your thoughts on the book and anything you’d like to hear us discuss: ulysses@shakespeareandcompany.com
     
    A student of environmental policy at Sciences Po-Paris, Alice McCrum runs programming at the American Library in Paris. 
     
    In between fits of Joycean nerdery, Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco. An adopted Parisian, he teaches at Sciences Po-Paris and writes on the past and future of democracy.
     
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, Paris. He is the author of the novel Feeding Time, available in French as Défense de nourrir les vieux.
    *
    Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com
    Buy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulysses
    Find out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/home
    Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.net
    Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time
    Dr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.
    Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.
    Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1
    Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/
    Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.
    Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpS
    Visit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ 
    Music production by Adrien Chicot.
    Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/
    Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/
     

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 14 min

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
26 Ratings

26 Ratings

triathlete one thousand ,

Rich experience

Following broken arm

ejn42 ,

wonderful!

I’m a very stressed uni student + have little time for reading now but this is a lovely antidote!!

The Upright Man ,

No thanks

Would have probably enjoyed this given the scale of the project, but can't bring myself to listen to women's changing room-predator, Eddie Izzard.

Why give a man like that a platform?

Such a jarring, woeful choice.

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