That phrase the world had remembered

[svetlana14]

—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 corpse-strewn 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?

This extract is from Ulysses by James Joyce. Why did he convey the context using past perfect tense in that passage - that phrase the world had remembered.

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[Annabel Lee]

—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 corpse-strewn 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?

This extract is from Ulysses by James Joyce. Why did he convey the context using past perfect tense in that passage - that phrase the world had remembered.

Look at how the passage appears in the book. The sentence you have asked about is not part of the dialogue; it's part of the reporting of the dialogue. The dialogue is reported in the past tense ("said"). Here we have commentary on what's been spoken, namely, on the italicized phrase Another victory like that and we are done for. At the past time at which he spoke that phrase, it was true that the world had remembered the phrase.