Expression: And yet it was in some way...

[Haihao]

Hi,

Could you please help me with the following passage:

[Mister Micawber]

.
Yes, I think so-- but I really don't know what's going on in this passage.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Haihao]

Thank you, MM, and I am sorry for the insufficient context. It seems the setting is a classroom and questions and answers between a teacher and students on history. The wholer part is like this:

--You, Cochrane, what city sent for him?

--Tarentum, sir.

--Very good. Well?

--There was a battle, sir.

--Very good. Where?

The boy's blank face asked the blank window.

Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake's wings of excess. I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry, and time one livid final flame. What's left us then?

--I forget the place, sir. 279 B. C.

--Asculum, Stephen said, glancing at the name and date in the gorescarred book.

--Yes, sir. And he said: ANOTHER VICTORY LIKE THAT AND WE ARE DONE FOR.

That phrase the world had remembered. A dull ease of the mind. From a hill above a corpsestrewn plain a general speaking to his officers, leaned upon his spear. Any general to any officers. They lend ear.

--You, Armstrong, Stephen said. What was the end of Pyrrhus?

--End of Pyrrhus, sir?

--I know, sir. Ask me, sir, Comyn said.

--Wait. You, Armstrong. Do you know anything about Pyrrhus?

A bag of figrolls lay snugly in Armstrong's satchel. He curled them between his palms at whiles and swallowed them softly. Crumbs adhered to the tissue of his lips. A sweetened boy's breath. Welloff people, proud that their eldest son was in the navy. Vico road, Dalkey.

--Pyrrhus, sir? Pyrrhus, a pier.

All laughed. Mirthless high malicious laughter. Armstrong looked round at his classmates, silly glee in profile. In a moment they will laugh more loudly, aware of my lack of rule and of the fees their papas pay. (The beginning part of Chapter II, Ulysses)

Thank you again!

HH

[Mister Micawber]

.

[Haihao]

Thank you for your indication, Mister Micawber. Just as you pointed out, actually I couldn't possibly read and understand it without making a lot of research, which takes me more time, maybe much more time, than the reading itself. But I really feel it's worth it and maybe that's what the wonderful book is meant to be.

I would just like to have your precious help at the time my own researching source dries up and I would appreciate it so very much as ever.

Haihao

[Mister Micawber]

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If you are serious about working your way through Ulysses, why don't you do what native students do?-- pick up a copy of Stuart Gilbert's 'James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study', an inexpensive paperback that very authoritatively outlines the chapters, their structure and significance. It is an invaluable exegesis.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Haihao]

Thank you for the valuable information and I would try to get from Amazon the invaluable exegesis you recommended for the invaluable masterpiece.

Haihao