Joyce’s Ulysses draft tipped to fetch £1m

A draft chapter from writer James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses is expected to fetch more than £1m at auction today.

The heavily re-worked manuscript of the chapter, entitled Eumaeus, belongs to a private collector and was being sold at Sotheby’s in London.

The chapter is said to fill in an important piece in the evolution of the text, which many scholars regard as the most important novel of the 20th century.

Peter Selley, manuscript expert of the books department at Sotheby’s, said the sale would be certain to generate great interest from private collectors and institutions alike.

‘‘Many people regard Ulysses as the greatest novel of the 20th century. There is also a certain mystique and enigmatic quality surrounding Joyce.

‘‘In terms of marketing, he is one of the strongest writers of the last century,’’ he said.

Ulysses, which took seven years to write, is an account of all the thoughts of a man wandering round Dublin in 24 hours.

Another draft chapter which was auctioned in New York in December was bought by the National Library of Ireland for £1m.

The manuscript is being sold by a private collector who acquired it several years ago from Henri-Etienne Hoppenot (1891-1977), a distinguished diplomat, poet and writer who was the French Ambassador in Berne from 1945 to 1952.