As soon as the boys had turned into Clonliffe road together they began to speak about books and writers,saying what books they were reading and how many books there were in their fathers' bookcases at home. Stephen listened to them in some wonderment for Boland was the dunce and Nash the idler of the class.
In fact after some talk about their favourite writers Nash declared for Captain Marryat who, he said, was the greatest writer.