Instead of returning to the four Shakespearean plays for this week’s blog, I am going to focus on another used book, also found in the “Used” section of the Barnes and Noble in Paramus. I originally purchased this book, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce during this past winter break, purely for the reason that it was included on my book list. Once I got home, I set in the box with the rest of my booklist and didn’t return to it until about two weeks ago when we began reading it for class.

It appeared to be the Penguin edition, just as my professor suggested, and the page numbers correspond to the correct edition. It wasn’t until a bookmark fell out that I noticed I had not bought the same edition. The bookmark is a boarding pass, assigned to one Morris Lang, flying from Dublin to Shannon, Ireland. So I looked at the cover of the book again, noticing a sticker on the back cover that had the bookseller’s name on it: Hughes & Hughes Booksellers, and a price: ϵ 8.25. There was also another sequence of numbers: 27 05 02 but I was originally struck by the Euro symbol. Euro – not dollars. I had purchased a book from a country I’ve never visited. So I emailed the company after finding them on Facebook, and am awaiting a response.

Setting aside my interest in the person who purchased the book and why (perhaps he needed a good read for his flight), the origins of the book are quite international, too. The booksellers are Irish – there are six locations, one which happens to be in Stephen’s Square, Dublin (I presume that this is the location from which the book was published, although I am not sure). The copyright page of the book gives the name of the printer and a blurb describing the copyright rules, which interestingly enough don’t apply to the U.S. The printers, Clays Ltd., are actually English – and are a part of St. Ives plc which is the canopy for a dozen or so marketing and publishing companies for books. Clays and St. Ives are both located in London.

Below the printers, the book notes that it was printed with monophoto photosetting which is the second generation of the mechanical photosetting machine. The first generation had an output of about 8000 characters an hour.  The book was printed in Sabon typeface – which was created in the 1960s. This particular font became very popular because it was designed for monotype and linotype printing, specifically for the purpose of making the italic and bold variations of the font the same size as the roman form. This font is also a bit narrower, saving space and money for the printer. Thus, it became an economical option which fits considering my copy of the book is a mass-produced Penguin edition.

Physically, the book is about eight by five inches, the average size, and just under an inch thick. The cover is worn, with what looks like some water damage to make the last couple of pages wavy. It was either a well loved book, or since it’s travelled through three different countries (that I know of), a well abused book. The mediocrity of the physical appearance turns out to be a good inference as to the mediocrity of the edition itself. Despite the European origin, it contains the same exact text, notes, introduction, etc as the American version.

The editor of this edition works for Penguin, and was born and educated in Ireland. Again, another fitting element since Joyce is an Irish writer (I would hope the person is well versed in the culture in which the book was written – and he seems to be).  He is also the General Editor of all of Joyce’s works for Penguin. The book was obviously based on Joyce’s original work, but this edition has notes for each chapter, explaining terms and often times referring to things by their locations in Ireland. This doesn’t help me much because I don’t know Ireland’s geography, nor am I familiar with the characteristics of a city that is mentioned as a qualifier for one of the events. But with the availability of Google Maps, this shouldn’t stand as a problem.

The edition I have is based on the original publication of Portrait in 1914-1915 in The Egoist, but since has been edited by Chester G. Anderson (New York: Viking and London: Cape) in the 1960s, which became the edition that was revised with notes and an introduction by the General Editor in 1992. It was then republished in 2000 by Penguin Classics. The three publication variations (or reprints) that are noted in the book lead me to believe that the original text was used as a basis in 1992, by the General Editor.

Nonetheless, it turns out through a comparison to the American version of the same Penguin Classics’ Portrait that the ONLY difference was where the book was printed. The American version was printed in America (appropriately so although it does not say by which company) and even uses the same phototype and font. Whatever the similarities, I still think it’s cool that an Irish book has made it into my hands.