Bloomsday 2021
Joyce Book Giveaway
- Wednesday 16 June 2021
James Joyce’s character Leopold Bloom is the unlikely hero of one the 20th century’s most famous works of literature - Ulysses. His peregrinations around Dublin on 16 June 1904 are celebrated every year worldwide as Bloomsday!
The city of Paris also left an indelible mark on Joyce’s life and work. The author was an integral part of the 1920s artistic and literary circles of the Quartier Latin, completing the final chapters of his chef d’œuvre there and managing to get it published by the recently opened Shakespeare and Co. bookshop in 1922. Next year, in 2022, we will be celebrating the centenary of the publication of Ulysses with a rich ‘Joyce Season’ of events and collaborations.
In the run up to these festivities, the Embassy of Ireland in France and the Centre Culturel Irlandais are joining together this year to give away hundreds of copies of Ulysse and Dublinois, two of Joyce’s emblematic texts. No less than 500 books (in French) will be distributed for free on Bloomsday in different parts of the capital. Come and get a copy, read it at your leisure and then give it to a friend or place it somewhere when out wandering yourself! Don’t forget to post a photo of the book wherever you leave it – on a parkbench, on the terrace of a café or perhaps on the platform of the métro – via social media, using the hashtag #ParisJoyce2022. That way you can help us to take Joyce’s work on a contemporary journey till 2022 and beyond!
Where you can come and collect a book (in French):
_ Les Deux Magots (6 place St-Germain-des-Prés, 6e) from 10am
_ Café de Flore (172 boulevard St-Germain, 6e) from 11am
_ Shakespeare and Company (37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5e) from 12 noon
_ Centre Culturel Irlandais (5 rue des Irlandais, 5e), from 2pm to 8pm
_ Jardin du Luxembourg (6e) from 3pm
_ aux abords du Panthéon (5e) from 4pm
_ Café de la Nouvelle Mairie (19 rue des Fossés St-Jacques, 5e) from 4.30pm
The number of books available in each spot is limited.
One book per person. First come, first served!
Back to the 16 June 2021:
