What is the Gabler edition of Ulysses?
The Gabler edition, “Ulysses: The Corrected Text” (1984), was edited by Hans Walter Gabler, who rebuilt the text from Joyce's manuscripts and proofs and made about 5,000 corrections. The most famous restores a line about love in Episode 9.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Stephen's thought in the National Library, restored by Gabler.
Love, yes. Word known to all men.
What it means in plain English
The edition was praised and then fiercely attacked, notably by John Kidd in 1988. The argument is still unsettled.
This site's text follows readings found in the corrected text, for example “steelyringing” and “makes no mistakes”.
Literary context
Many readers still use the 1922 or 1961 texts.
References
- Ulysses: The Corrected Text, ed. Hans Walter Gabler (1984)
- John Kidd, “The Scandal of Ulysses”, New York Review of Books, 30 June 1988
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Questions readers ask
Which edition should I read?
Either the 1922 text or Gabler is fine for a first read.
Related terms
“The word known to all men”
“The word known to all men” is a phrase Stephen asks about in Episodes 3, 9 and 15. In Circe he begs his dead mother's ghost to tell it to him. In the corrected text, Episode 9 answers it: the word is love.
The 1922 first edition
Ulysses was first published in Paris on 2 February 1922, Joyce's fortieth birthday, by Sylvia Beach's bookshop Shakespeare and Company. It was printed in Dijon in an edition of 1,000 copies, in a blue cover chosen to match the Greek flag.
“A man of genius makes no mistakes”
“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Stephen says it in the National Library in Episode 9, defending his theory of Shakespeare: a great artist's apparent errors are chosen, and lead to new truths.