James Joyce: Ireland's Most Enigmatic Writer

[@Biographics]

Get started with Babbel today: bit.ly/BabbelBiographics

[@luxembourgishempire2826]

Already learning German with Babbel. You have to if you are in Luxembourg. I was way better at French at school...

[@barraman.]

Make Miguel Cervantes (author of the Quixote)

[@dave0z96]

Do Clessie Cummins who is the founder of the Cummins engine company, and Matthias Baldwin who was a inventor dealing with steam locomotives, and the founder of Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the Kellogg brothers in which Will Kellog founded the cereal company . These guys were great American entrepreneurs that are often overlooked .

[@lukasjansen1815]

Life will always miss something, as long as there is no video about Kierkegaard on Biographics

[@davidradujr.9829]

Please make a biography on King Michael of Romania

[@Wrz2e]

Visited Dublin years ago and asked the hotel barman which pubs Joyce drank in. He said it would be quicker to list the pubs Joyce DIDN'T drink in...😏

[@maireadnic8280]

If one is interested in Ulysses in particular, the main ones to visit are opposite each other on Duke Street, just off Grafton Street. Davy Byrne’s is mentioned in Ulysses, where Bloom gets his gorgonzola sandwich. Then The Bailey is where the doorcase from the 7 Eccles Street house was relocated when it was demolished. I was always more of a Patrick Kavsnagh fan, so I preferred McDaids just up the way on Harry Street 😉

[@Wrz2e]

@@maireadnic8280 I never got to have a Burgundy in Davy Byrnes (we were staying North of the river and drinking around Temple bar near the river) so it was a bit out of our way. Perhaps on my next visit!

[@harmonetheanimationaddict4419]

He’s Irish, what’d you expect?

[@caryoulwhitty]

@@harmonetheanimationaddict4419 ya. Gifted with words 😊

[@goodchessactor]

There is a standard joke: "Have you read Joyce?" "Of course, I love all of her works."

[@Baerchenization]

I thought the joke goes like: "yes - well, the first 20 pages" ;)

[@allanlank]

I like Kipling. Have you ever Kippled?

[@alundavies8402]

allan lanktree what about Dickens?

[@allanlank]

@@alundavies8402 The Dickens you say.

[@Tiger89Lilly]

Don't read Dante. It's hell to get through.

[@jessejoyce1295]

Cheers for honoring James Joyce, as a member of the Joyce clan I appreciate it. My Joyce ancestors left Ireland for the US sometime in the decades after the great famine, and I must say that some of the stories of alcoholism and domestic problems sound exactly the same as the stories I heard from my grandfather Pat Joyce about his childhood and his father. To me the contrast between the depths of despair, mental illness and alcoholism and also the undeniable artistic brilliance of James Joyce are not even really in contrast, one goes with the other

[@seanbrazell6147]

That's always been my experience as well. I'm not gonna lie, its a treat to read a reply from an actual relative of such a magnificent author. 😁👍

[@internetual7350]

I'm just wondering do you know how exactly you are related to him as in let's say 3rd cousin as an example?

[@Urmashouldvswallowed]

I’m a Joyce aswell and we didn’t all leave Ireland an sum went to England, we’d both be distantly related to him but it’s mad considering how middle classes our family is to have a member of the family to become iconic like that is mad

[@Aller50]

Great video, As an Irish man born in the late 70s and had parents that where in play groups and listening to a lot of Joyce stories it's great to hear somone else say it as they see it on the subject. Keep up the great work you do, Thanks.

[@ethanramos4441]

“When I die Dublin will be written in my heart” James Joyce

[@LannasMissingLink]

Im pretty sure this quote is painted somewhere in Dublin. I recognise seeing it in a mural

[@Poigmothoin]

Should definitely do Michael Collins my man

[@antrant7533]

Yes! I believe I'm related to him!

[@tuckery]

When you introduce Joyce's wife, Nora, you present a photo of Joyce's daughter, Lucia. You might want to correct that.

[@ultraatari9298]

Works for me lol

[@admiralfishchipsman573]

and one thing don't look it up don't feel love of God look it up on KZbin I have heard things I do not want to hear ever again

[@meme6684]

Fun fact: James Joyce had a fart fetish It’s true, look it up

[@roguescape]

@@ultraatari9298 wut

[@shadowist70]

His wife was his daughter.

[@jessicaseyfried7888]

Simon, I dropped a class in college because half the class was Ulysses. To explain why to my Mom I brought the book home and told her to open it anywhere and start to read. She didn’t make it through a paragraph before she just closed it and told me that she understood why. I hope that you are enjoying all the new things in your life 💕

[@jessicaseyfried7888]

It’s been 30 years. I could probably find something in it now. I was just pleased to not disappoint 💜

[@frankuvlkan]

@@jessicaseyfried7888 Hi Jessica I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@redheadredneckv]

Micheal Collins, now that we’re on Ireland, we need these lads

[@daithimcnally8212]

Big Mick

[@tetrahedron1000]

Roger Casement

[@antob2986]

Backstabber Collins sold out .. Tom barry legend

[@wthwasthat8884]

@@antob2986 DeValera sold Collins out. There. Fixed your post.

[@LannasMissingLink]

Ah not this controversy again! It was over 100 years ago and we cant judge people based off the little information we have from it and using our modern viewpoint..

[@rhijulbec1]

Joyce once said (supposedly) it took him seventeen years to write Ulysses, so it should take seventeen years to read it. I like that. Jenn in Canada 🇨🇦

[@jwardbass4452]

Finnegan’s Wake was the book that took 17 years to write, Ulysses still took about 8 years to write tho

[@MrJoyce86]

Always thought we were related to James Joyce, but as it turns out, our line of Joyces(proven through Y DNA testing) are descended from a Scottish man named William Joass. Our family name changed to Joss, then Joyce after our ancestors fled to county Down, Ireland in the early 1700s

[@Whimsey6]

I have people in Down, too. Beautiful place.

[@peterpanther8627]

Don't tell your children that.

[@sitcomchristian6886]

Happens to the best of us!

[@Urmashouldvswallowed]

Ye there’s different family’s of Joyce’s I’m from his James mother’s side

[@Oakeedokee7]

If you wish to do other famous Irish people, here are a few: • Michael Collins - the father of Irish Independence. The inspirational leader of the old IRA (not the terrorist group of '70's) and transitioned from revolutionary to politician. He was a great leader and is worshipped in Ireland. He's a story of what might have been, as he was assassinated at a young age in the brutal Irish Civil War. • Eamon De Valera - often referred to as DeV, De Valera was the most impactful Irish leader of the 20th Century. History has not been kind to him, as he is seen as an extreme man for his time, while his role in the Civil War created a huge split in Irish people, and is seen as someone who set Collins up to die. But he was important to Ireland and would be our Taoiseach (Prime Minister) on 3 occasions for a total of 21 years. • William Joyce - AKA Lord Haw-Haw. Born in New York in 1906, Joyce grew up in Galway in Ireland and aided the despised Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence before fleeing to England. He would become involved in Fascist movements across the UK before leaving for Germany in 1939. He became a radio propagandist for the Nazis in 1939 before being hung for treason in 1946. • Gerry Adams - former leader of Sinn Féin, Adams was extremely influential during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was in the IRA and a member of Sinn Féin before making a somewhat successful transition to politician. • John Hume - a beloved man from the Troubles. John Hume fought for peace in Northern Ireland and equal rights for the Catholic Irish Nationalists. He wished to do this through peaceful means only and is one of the most beloved people in Ireland. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. Hope you like these suggestions!

[@BrainsApplied]

*Mistakes are the portal of discovery* - James Joyce

[@PavelisLord]

"A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." The context is strange, too. I think Stephen was actually being sarcastic and using his humor to parry a caustic interaction.

[@Tlindholttothemax]

This is brilliant! If you are doing Irish writers, would you please consider doing a biographics on Samuel Beckett ?

[@matthewparker4532]

Please do Fyodor Dostoyevsky for a bio! A man whom dealt with near death experience and the tyrannical nature of the Russian Empire of the mid 1800s. Very interesting guy!

[@hanglee5586]

Can you do one on Christy Brown, the Irish writer with cerebral palsy?

[@diarmuidoneill6558]

Class video Simon and the team would love more irish history vids our history is so rich and mainly unknown to other nations

[@phantombeard6262]

Another writer that would be an interesting bio could be Chinua Achebe. The author of "Things Fall Apart" would be an interesting bio for you guys (and gals!) Also, maybe some composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Puccini, Wagner, or Tchaikovsky. Or a contemporary writer/singer Gord Downie? (The lead man of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip) Awesome job as always Biographics

[@Pantano63]

Achebe is an overrated plagiarist.

[@ceciliaspears161]

Finnegan's Wake is in my top 10 favorite books! Very well written! So deep! I learned much at a young age!

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Cecilia I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@_aworldthatspoke950]

@@frankuvlkan neither of you sound like real people

[@ceciliaspears161]

@@HaroldGeorge-pe8gz Believe what you will

[@marktracy1721]

You read it 😮😮😮😮 Wow Did you understand it Does one need a Lit degree to be able to...................................

[@ceciliaspears161]

@@_aworldthatspoke950 Even if it's not intended, I'll take it as a compliment 😁🤣

[@telemachus53]

An excellent summary of a complex author and person. There's a little museum dedicated to him and other writers next to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. A poignant experience going there.

[@joec.9591]

Wonderful video! My favorite of Joyce 's works has always been "The Dead."

[@arthurshakey8695]

Thanks for this one! Well done

[@natsune09]

Ireland also produced my favorite writer, Sheridan Le Fanu. He wrote Carmilla, which was an influence for Dracula and Lucy. I would love to see a bio on him.

[@Ruby321123]

Carmilla is such a classic! ❤

[@primesspct2]

I am glad to hear I am not the only one who had trouble reading Finnegans Wake! I suppose i should start with one of his other works! LOL

[@Frank-mm2yp]

Suggest "Dubliners" (short stories) and "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"(novel) before you tackle Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

[@primesspct2]

@@Frank-mm2yp Thanks, I'll do that!

[@robertcongdon6296]

I tried reading Ulysses once when I was a young man, but it was so dense, frustrating, and incomprehensible to me that I quit and never picked it up again. Because of that experience, I never attempted to read Joyce again. Now that I'm in the autumn of my years, perhaps I'll try reading one of his earlier more user friendly books and see what I've been missing all these years.

[@riggers1977]

I was the same, but after reading ‘A Portrait of the Artist’ I found that Ulysses made a lot more sense. I’m rereading Ulysses now for the third time as it happens & I’m finally beginning to get a handle on the bloody thing! It’s not meant to be coherent in the way a normal book is....it’s more like an exercise regime for the mind. It’s there to test you & make you work to ‘unearth its genius’. I’m not a clever bloke by any stretch, but now I can finally say that Joyce doesn’t intimidate me anymore!

[@Tolstoy111]

I hope you give it another chance. It’s wonderful.

[@lilbatz]

Thank you. Been waiting for this one for a long time.💕

[@jacknash5538]

Can you please please do michael collins

[@jimmyryan5880]

was about to say that

[@Poigmothoin]

I’ve been asking for ages man

[@davebayliss3142]

jack Nash who?

[@kenkennedy7439]

Yes Collins please

[@danielyoung6778]

@@davebayliss3142 basically the military leader of the Irish War of independence. Led a guerilla war that was able to effectively counter the British empire, led the treaty negotiations and was leader of the Irish state up until his assassination in the closing days of the civil war. He was barely over thirty when he died.

[@puffin51]

Congratulations. This is the best short biography and appreciation of Joyce that I have found so far. I still don't understand why anybody would want to read him, but that's probably never going to change. I struggled through "Ulysses" as an undergrad. It was the single most hideous reading experience of my life.

[@jacobwells810]

Just found your channel a few days ago. I'm loving it. Could you perhaps do Dostoevsky and Conrad next

[@MrsCeliaytu]

Hey! The pictures you show are not of Nora but of Lucia, Joyce's and Nora's daughter. Other from that, the video is great! Thank you!!

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Ceci I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:45 - Chapter 1 - Write what you know...Dubliner 6:45 - Chapter 2 - In his father's footsteps 9:35 - Mid roll ads 11:00 - Chapter 3 - My proud blue-eyes queen...i'm mad with lust 14:10 - Chapter 4 - The tragedy of of Joyce's attention to detail 17:40 - Chapter 5 - Fleeing france

[@BJ-zd2or]

Hideo Kojima, that made Metal Gear Solid 2: sons of liberty 2001 was inspired by James Joyce Ulysses work. To read Ulysses myself it's no wonder why Hideo was interested by his work, very in depth detail.

[@maireadnic8280]

Did you know that Joyce was the manager of one of Dublin’s first cinemas (maybe even the first)? A couple of clarifications: 1- any backlash about the repatriation of Joyce’s remains was actually from the Swiss side, not Ireland. And probably Stephen Joyce, because it’s what he does. 2- some of the behaviour around Lucia can possibly be explained by the fact it happened when she was sent to stay with Padraic and Mary Colum (the latter was instrumental in Ulysses becoming popular in the US). Mary contacted James and Nora to voice her concerns - sadly Giorgio came instead and had her committed. Also, it wasn’t the Beckett breakup that caused Giorgio to decide to commit her, but a later one.

[@laztoth3104]

Joyce, wrote about TRUE life. GREAT writer he is a favorite of many of mine Thanks Simon for your great work...

[@d4mdcykey]

If by "enigmatic" you mean the text equivalent of wading in snake-infested quicksand during a tornado while drunk and huffing ether in the dark, then yeah, sure...

[@lilbatz]

You make it sound like doing all of that is a bad thing. What a buzzkill.

[@ciaransheil563]

Hello from Cork !!!

[@treverthompson9479]

You should do one on micheal collins

[@teddysheehan2352]

Be class alright! 👍

[@baldomeronava5664]

Nice to see an early Albatross in this video, Simon!

[@broomhands8001]

Woah . Literally started reading dubliners yesterday

[@robertjordan355]

A fantastic collection. Be careful not to read them as you would a conventional collection of short stories. They are enigmatic, and if you proceed too speedily you will surely miss the 'point' of many of them. It may seem like nothing is happening in some of the stories, but the collection as a whole is deeply significant...

[@broomhands8001]

@@robertjordan355 certainly. I'm a big short story person and I think that advice is best adhered to when it comes to more than just Joyce's works.

[@johnhudson2006]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@andriesoliviier9529]

It took me about a decade of reading Ulysses and trying to make sense of it before I realized (probably out of frustration) that his depiction of core humanity is so on the nose that it simply isn't compatible with the concept of narrative fiction. OR he's to smart for me and I'm grasping at straws. That said, I'd like to see Simon cover Sylvia Plath or Pablo Neruda.

[@kasimirdenhertog3516]

What makes it difficult is the endless references. To understand the complete text of Ulysses requires an impossible amount of knowledge. So either you look everything up or you read it ‘as is’. This is also the beauty of it, where on the face of it, not a lot happens in 10 pages, but dig deeper and there’s a whole new world to be found.

[@andriesoliviier9529]

I actually like encyclopedic novels like Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow, but Joyce took his gift of the gab to new extremes.

[@thirtyyearoldmulberryfield]

Aldous Huxley at some point?

[@tetrahedron1000]

Hermann Hesse

[@lucas3918]

I just remembered after seeing this video that I had actually read one of Joyce's short stories back in high school and loved it. His pedantic style garnered criticism by some, but I loved it.

[@mattgillick32]

That first picture was Lucia, Joyce’s daughter.

[@brentvenneman6710]

A constant struggle is what people want, it creates more energy. Energy creates results and dreams.

[@KR-kf7fy]

This isn't Nora Barnacle at 11:42 and 10:54, this is his daughter Lucia Joyce.

[@gobnaitaine2791]

Please do a biography on Grace O Malley 🙏.

[@jimmyryan5880]

snap

[@robmaher42]

The pictures used for Nora here are actually all of Lucia Joyce.

[@flirtinggracefullplatypus8496]

the story oh his daughter is also something...

[@saidtoshimaru1832]

Don't quote any of the letters Joyce wrote to Nora, they'll get the video demonetized.

[@JZHerrenberg]

Exactly!

[@WickedKingLycoan]

Said Toshimaru: But aren’t they truly romantic and wonderful! I Love those letters.

[@jasone.1261]

Hey Simon! Have you yet done a video on famous Scottish writer Robert Burns?

[@JamesVaughan]

Dylan Thomas too.

[@tetrahedron1000]

@@JamesVaughan There should be one about Alasdair Gray, who died recently - a fascinating character.

[@calumstewart3009]

great video. Thank you

[@rossgrubbs4017]

Along this same vein-William Faulkner please.

[@Pantano63]

Faulkner definitely!

[@davidlinehat4657]

joyce’s love letters are something of legend

[@tetrahedron1000]

Where is it possible to read them?

[@davidlinehat4657]

They’re vulgar but I think the fact that he wrote them to the love of his life make them extremely romantic

[@The-Portland-Daily-Blink]

Wow! This was a great video. I’m so fascinated by his life. My family is also from County Cork. A fantasy is that I’m a distant relation of Joyce. 😊

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Theresa I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@paryanindoeur]

_Finnegan's Wake_ -- The most famous book no one has ever read.

[@jamesfracasse8178]

Father Frank Brown was the main character

[@fiachrasayshi]

I thought it was random/funny that Ernest Hemingway talked about Joyce being a good drinking partner in ‘The Green Hills of Africa’

[@stephenfarrelly1602]

One of the best Irish writers up there with Oscar Wilde imo

[@DeWaltDisney]

Roger Casement would make a fantastic Biographic video His life's work included: Exposing the exploitation in the rubber plantations of Congo and Peru, a knighthood in 1912. His secret work as an Irish revolutionary, gunrunning into Howth, sourcing weapons and assistance from the Germans, travelling aboard the U20 submarine, that a year before had sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. His arrest and outing as a homosexual during his trial for high treason to prevent a call for clemency from the U.S, before his execution in Pentonville Prison

[@tetrahedron1000]

I became interested in Casement after seeing a programme about him on television in the early Noughties. Definitely one of the most fascinating characters in history. It's a pity that the natives on the Amazon are still being given a hard time - not to mention the destruction of the rainforest.

[@playful_dolphin]

legend has it joyce drank 30 Guinness a day while writing finnegans wake

[@bonusgolden12]

Aloysius (/ˌæloʊˈɪʃəs/ AL-oh-ISH-əs)

[@surfacingcom]

THANK YOU!

[@dmc2554]

So, like, to be Literal about the literary glitterati, let's keep our 'nunciations precise, shall we?

[@Scoob505]

A biographics on the great and tragic Robert Emmett would be legendary. RIP Emmett.

[@jamesd5366]

Would it be possible to get the sponsor stuff out of the way at the very beginning or at the very end

[@MrAGr]

This is great ! The controversial and singular Gabriele D' Annunzio would be a good idea for a future video.

[@coolstorybro6076]

* The pictures you keep showing of "Nora" are actually of James Joyce's daughter Lucia.... come on, Biographics, you can do so much better; put the work in your research!

[@molosomari]

Next: Kelly Johnson, the genius aeronautical engineer, father of the U2 spy plane and the SR 71 blackbird...

[@robertriehm15]

Madomn Jeanne Guyon biography! Thanks Simon the channel is awesome.

[@CrazyBear65]

Love me some Guinness. I'm not even Irish. Scottish & Native American. But damn, I love me some Guinness.

[@flinkostememniakgrant1266]

An Indian that can hold his liquor.

[@claraelizabeth]

I have to admit that I never finished Finnegans Wake.. and I majored in English Literature🙁 I’m picking it up again. Hopefully I can finish this time.

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Helen I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@mouthforwar17]

I'd like to see an episode dedicated to MacBeth. Perhaps it could be a what we know of the real MacBeth versus what's in Shakespeare's play. An alternative could be a bio on the main characters of MacBeth, contrasted against the historical figures they were based on.

[@breakingbad5474]

You need to do more when it comes to Irish history for example..Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Charles Stuart Parnell and his fight for Home Rule, Daniel O'Connell "The Liberator" and his fight for Catholic emancipation.. James Connolly, Michael Collins, Padraig Pearse, Eamon De Valera, Tom Barry, Maud Gonne, Constance Markievicz and other freedom fighters/revolutionaries like Bobby Sands.. as well as John Hume and his political career from the civil rights movement to the peace process.

[@loganmcdonald568]

Since you are on the topic of writers, how about Jane Austen or The Brontë Sisters? Austen and the Brontë sisters are some of the most famous female writers of all time.

[@MaXinyue-u9u]

Bella historia de un gran escritor de la Realidad Irlandesa. Que dura fue la vida en aquel inicio de 1900, y entre guerras. Aúpa James Joyce

[@conorbreathnach8484]

Should have mentioned what he's affectionately known as in Dublin "the prick with the stick"!

[@terencemagee]

God, I just watched the 1967 film, what a chore, bored out of my skull. Joyce was a con-artist, a clever one true, but full of spiel. Nowhere as good as other writers like Dostoyevsky.

[@Tolstoy111]

Read the novel! It’s un-film-able.

[@watching7721]

You judged a guy's novel by their film adaption?

[@johncanjar1009]

Someone must have mentioned this already, but the pictures shown for Nora Barnacle are actually of Joyce's daughter Lucia.

[@carmelmulroy6459]

Can you do one one James Connolly. He was an internationalist but one of the signee of the Irish proclamation of independence.

[@rami_ungar_writer]

Could you please do videos about Upton Sinclair and Dennis Rader in the future?

[@robertgrayraleigh]

The reason that I have subtitles turned off is that they are distracting and useless. Yet you stick them in our faces anyway, even when we have them turned off

[@alisonarmstrong8421]

See end of "A Portrait..." : to fly by the nets of..." was his reason for leaving Ireland. What inhibit many Irish writers.

[@justinpaul3110]

Good timing. I just bought Ulysses

[@betterknownasjen]

Good luck!

[@justinpaul3110]

@@betterknownasjen that's what I've heard about the difficulty level

[@rosamariamendoza1466]

Justin Paul , I also just ordered my copy too!!!

[@robertmcgovern8850]

Suggest buying The Bloomsday Book, a companion reader that simplifies the narrative chapter by chapter, with special reference to correspondences with Homer's Odyssey. Once you get the basic plot and characters sorted, it is easier to enjoy the mad ornamentation of Ulysses. It is an astonishing piece of work. :)

[@EXPONENTIAL-ik8uz]

READ: " THE BLOOMSDAY BOOK " BY: HARRY BLAMIRES. READ THE ABOVE BEFORE YOU TACKLE: "ULYSSES" BLAMIRE'S BOOK WILL SURPRISE YOU BY HOW QUICKLY IT REVEALS THE LOGIC IN ULYSSES! IF YOU READ IT AFTER TACKLING JOYCE'S WORK, YOU'LL KICK YOURSELF FOR HAVING MISSED SO MUCH OF JOYCE'S DELICIOUS HUMOR! IF YOU SERIOUSLY WANT TO FATHOM "ULYSSES" THE ABOVE IS INDISPENSABLE.

[@todddougherty9492]

Great Bio!!!! I always wondered how Agatha Christie got into “who done it” mysteries.

[@mihai3094]

This video motivates me somehow to read this author. Thank you :)

[@WeirdTunes]

Nice one, I was wondering if you have (or can do) a video about Enver Hoxha? Famous leader of Albania for years.

[@tetrahedron1000]

A pretty ruthless dictator.

[@kingstonlaw8889]

Like every other geniuses, Joyce was ahead of his time that people failed to understand how great he was.......

[@shaunmattice6413]

You should do Marry Shelley.

[@kbredstar529]

yyou should do more about Ireland. the troubles, bobby sands, etc.

[@joniroxanne96]

A bar in my hometown (Pula 🇭🇷), located in the building where he taught, was named after Ulysses. 😃

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Joni I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@michealkelly9441]

Now we Need one on samuel beckett!

[@ashleighgallant]

You should do a biography on Thomas Becket, would make a great video for sure

[@tetrahedron1000]

Do you mean Samuel Beckett?

[@ashleighgallant]

@@tetrahedron1000 No Thomas Becket was Saint Thomas of Canterbury, his story alongside Henry II is a great read :)

[@frankuvlkan]

@@ashleighgallant Hi Ashleigh I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@henriqueoliveira3872]

Hey! Loved the video! Here 's a list of interesting people for bios! António Salazar - Portuguese XX century dictator Andrew Jackson - 1820's us president Abraham Lincoln - 1860's us president (duhh) Ronald Reagan - 1980's us president Paul Von Hinderburg - WW1 general and president of the Weimar Republic Erich Ludendorff - infamous WW1 German general Duke of Wellington - (the guy that beat Napoleon Bonaparte) Love your Channel! thanks!

[@shanemackey6103]

Micheal Collins would be sweet but id say Sir Rodger Casement would be amazing too if you can fit him into 20 min. He was born down the road in Sandycove, Dublin where the start of Joyces Ulysses was set. he was a Irish citizen that was knighted for hampering the Belgian Congo rubber trade and brought U-boats full of guns to Ireland to support the rising.

[@rosamariamendoza1466]

Shane Mackey, who knighted him?

[@shanemackey6103]

@@rosamariamendoza1466 King George V in 1911

[@rosamariamendoza1466]

Shane Mackey, thanks!

[@tetrahedron1000]

He also tried to save the natives on the Amazon from slavery. Unfortunately, they are still being mistreated.

[@garethwalters2011]

Love your videos simon, but the adverts are a bit much... I can listen to your promotions, they are always relevant to the video....but putting 3 KZbin adverts in a video like this seems greedy... babel already paid you... let us enjoy your content without interruption from outside ads

[@jayceewilliams5250]

Where's the video on anne Frank? Did you guys take it down?

[@frankuvlkan]

Hi Jaycee I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….🌹🌹

[@gobbagu]

hardest working man on utube

[@Musiquedecor]

thank you

[@CeoLogJM]

Just in time for my Finnegans Wake reading!

[@jonathanbialowas285]

This suggestion is off the topic of authors (the bios of authors have been quite prolific as of late); an interesting figure of early 19th century European history, wars, and politics is Jean Bernadotte; AKA Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte and King of Sweden and Norway Charles XIV John/Carl John. Along with this figure from the post you will also discover within the research of said; his many many contemporaries from which should offer you several other opportunities to create new videos for your channel.

[@LtColShingSides]

Think you'd ever do Sir Richard Burton or Algernon Swinburne? I read a sci-fi, alternate history, series with those two as unlikely time traveler fighting companions and they seem like pretty interesting characters.