james joyce and eça de queiroz

From a novel by Eca de Queiros (1845-1900):

They came and went incessantly, shuffling gracelessly along, accompanied by a deep murmur of voices, devoid of joy and bonhomie, caught up in the kind of passive excitement favoured by indolent races; in the midst of that abundance of light and the gaiety of the music, there was an air of tedium, penetrating as mist; a fine dust enfolded the figures, reducing them all to the same neutral tones; and in the most brighly lit areas, on the faces that passed beneath the street lamps, one saw the discontent of the weary and the monotonous gloom of Sundays.

From James Joyce's Dubliners:

The grey warm evening of August had descended upon the city and a mild warm air, a memory of summer, circulated in the streets. The streets, shuttered for the repose of Sunday, swarmed with a gaily colored crowd. Like illumined pearls, the lamps shone from the summits of their tall poles upon the living texture below which, changing shape and hue unceasingly, sent up into the warm grey evening air an unchanging unceasing murmur.

what are the odds?

Eça de Queiroz's short story "José Matias" contains the phrase "introibo ad altare dei" and a mention of St. John Chrysostom. The story is about a man who loves from afar a woman (who also loves him):

"He reigned supreme in Elisa's immortal soul; what did it matter if another possessed her mortal body? But no, the poor man suffered terrible anguish and to shake off the pain of these torments, he, who had always been so serene and mildmannered, was seized by a terrible restlessness."

The man watches as the woman he loves becomes a widow, remarries, then finally takes a lover.

This echoes Bloom and Molly's complex feelings for each other. I never thought of paralysis before in connection with Bloom and Molly, but maybe that's the best way to describe their emotional situation.