Bookstore Guide: Sweny, Dublin

Where? Dublin, Ireland

Recommended by Cristina Cona

Cristina said: "Located in the heart of literary Dublin, Sweny’s pharmacy is known to Ulysses aficionados as the place where Leopold Bloom goes to have a lotion made, admires the wares displayed on the shelves and buys a bar of lemon soap. The pharmacy had opened for business in 1853; it kept going until 2009, when it would have closed for good and probably gone the same way as other shops nearby, most of which seem to have turned into rather soulless coffee- or juice-bars. Fortunately, a group of volunteers decided to keep it and its spirit alive, and now the premises double as a small bookshop, a venue for cultural events, particularly readings from Joyce’s works on several days a week, and a place where one can buy both vintage jewellery and the famous soap.

The stock is not large, consisting mainly of second-hand books: Irish literature, history and politics. However the shop, which apparently has not changed since Bloomsday 1904, has a charming interior, the volumes for sale are interesting, and you can find very unusual and rarely-seen volumes there. As for the soap, I can confirm it’s got a beautiful scent and feels smooth and delicious!”

There's not much to add to the wonderful recommendation by our friend Cristina. It's very nice to see that special places immortalized in the work of fiction do survive over time and in fact pay their debt back to the author, by serving as some kind of a very lively and cheerful monument to his work and life. And all that thanks to a bar of soap...
"Mr. Bloom raised a cake to his nostrils. Sweet lemony wax. I'll take this one, he said." Ulysses, James Joyce