Ulysses

Description

Ulysses by James Joyce was first published in 1922 after being serialised in the American journal, The Little Review. The story follows Leopold Bloom over the course of an ordinary day in Dublin. Based on Homer's hero Odysseus (of which Ulysses is the Latinised name), Bloom goes through a series of arguably more mundane journeys and encounters than the Greek hero, although the parallels are there. Other characters in the book are Bloom's wife Molly, her lover Blazes Boylan, and Stephen Dedalus (from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). Whilst the finished publication of Ulysses did not have title chapters, Joyce did give them names in letters he sent to friends.

Using a stream of consciousness technique, it is regarded as the one greatest works in literature, albeit one that caused controversy and even an obscenity trial in the United States when the Nausicaä episode (chapter 13) was published in The Little Review. The entire novel was banned in the United Kingdom until 1936, and whilst it was never offically banned in Ireland, a customs loophole ensured that it wasn't openly available in Joyce's home country until the 1960's.

№ 10 in Anne Haight's List of Banned Books.

№ 45 in The Guardian's 100 Greatest Novels Of All Time.

№ 46 in The Guardian's 100 Best Novels Written In English.

This book has 515 pages in the PDF version, and was originally published in 1922.

Production notes: This edition of Ulysses was published by Global Grey ebooks on the 25th January 2018, and was updated on the 13th July 2021. The artwork used for the cover is 'Portrait of Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński' by Leon Wyczółkowski.