Richard Best

Character Analysis

Best was the real assistant director of the National Library in 1904. He translated a book on Irish myths, and was an admirer of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. He references all of these in the course of the library discussion in "Scylla and Charybdis." Mr. Best is not one of the dominant personalities in the conversation, and generally falls in line behind Eglinton as opposed to Stephen. He appears briefly in Stephen's dreams in "Circe," and tries to quote Keats but means Yeats.