Optical connections: The eyes that mock me

Photographs of the famous Irish author, James Joyce, mostly picture him wearing his iconic metal round-eye spectacles with tortoiseshell rims. In his younger days he used pince-nez. But there are also images of him with the addition of an eyepatch over his left eye which, together with his moustache, thin goatee beard and bow-tie, gives him quite a rakish air. But the eyepatch was not merely an affectation, as Joyce was plagued by ocular problems throughout his life.

From a young age, Joyce showed himself to be an intelligent boy, with a gift for languages and an aptitude for writing. He taught himself Norwegian so that he could read the plays of Ibsen in their original language, while also ploughing through Dante, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. In later life he was able to speak 17 languages, partly thanks to his travels around Europe. For such a bookish individual, the eye conditions that were to render him unable to read or write for long periods must have felt like a particular form of torture.