IRISH POSTAGE company An Post have released two new stamps to celebrate the centenary of the publication of James Joyce's acclaimed novel Ulysses.
The book was first published as a complete novel on 2 February 1922, and the Ulysses 100 stamps were designed by Amsterdam-based Irish designers, the Stone Twins.
Posting on Instagram, the designers said they were honoured to have designed the stamps.
The design overlays the colours and structure defined in Joyce’s ‘Gilbert Schema’ which he published to help readers navigate the intricacies of the novel.
The street photographs featured on the stamps are by JJ Clarke (1879–1961), and the designers say they "offer a glimpse into James Joyce’s Dublin at the turn of the last century."
"The figures in the scenes could easily have appeared in Ulysses, and been passed by Stephen Dedalus or Leopold Bloom as they wander through Dublin on 16th June 1904," they said.
The novel takes place in an immediately around Dublin on a single day - 6 June 1904, and follows Stephen, and Leopold and Molly Bloom as they go about their day, and is widely regarded as a masterpiece on parallel with Homer's Odyssey.
Chief executive of An Post, David McRedmond, said Ulysses’ 100th anniversary "shows that Ulysses is as relevant now as a work of art as when it was written. These stamps reflect the unique mix of modernism and classicism that define the novel."
James Joyce expert Senator David Norris said the stamps "illustrate remarkably" the period outlined in the novel.
"Frozen in time the images on these stamps illustrate remarkably the period of James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1904.
"It is tempting to think that in the world of fiction these stamps might have adorned Bloom’s letter to Martha Clifford," Senator David Norris said.
The new stamps are available at certain post office nationwide and at the An Post online shop.
