Ulysses (novel)
On the 2nd of February 1922, Sylvia Beach handed James Joyce three copies of his new novel. The date marked his fortieth birthday and coincided with the publication of Ulysses in Paris by her Shakespeare and Company bookstore. This single event launched a work that would become one of the most important texts of modernist literature. The book had been serialized in The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920 before its full release. Joyce wrote the entire manuscript over seven years between 1914 and 1921. He considered it his only all-round character in literature when discussing Leopold Bloom with Frank Budgen. The novel chronicles the experiences of three Dubliners over a single day on the 16th of June 1904. Fans now celebrate this specific date annually as Bloomsday.
The narrative action moves from Sandycove to Howth Head across Dublin Bay on the 16th of June 1904. Leopold Bloom lives at 7 Eccles Street where episodes four seventeen and eighteen take place. The post office on Westland Row serves as the setting for episode five Lotus Eaters. Sweny's Pharmacy on Lincoln Place is where Bloom purchases soap during the same episode. The Freeman's Journal office on Prince's Street North hosts episode seven Aeolus. Davy Byrne's pub appears in episode eight Lestrygonians. The National Library of Ireland contains the events of episode nine Scylla and Charybdis. Ormond Hotel at Ormond Quay features in episode eleven Sirens. Barney Kiernan's pub is the location of episode twelve Cyclops. Holles Street Maternity Hospital houses episode fourteen Oxen of the Sun. Bella Cohen's brothel on 82 Tyrone Street Lower sets episode fifteen Circe. A cabman's shelter near Butt Bridge anchors episode sixteen Eumaeus. The orange line on maps shows Paddy Dignam's carriage route through episode six Hades. The Viceroy's journey in episode ten Wandering Rocks appears in blue.
Leopold Bloom corresponds to Odysseus from Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Stephen Dedalus mirrors Telemachus while Molly Bloom represents Penelope. Joyce discovered Victor Bérard's theory that The Odyssey had Semitic roots while writing in Zurich. This influenced his creation of Leopold Bloom as a Jewish character. Ezra Pound called these Homeric correspondences a scaffold for construction. T.S. Eliot described them as having the importance of a scientific discovery. William York Tindall noted that Bloom is not only Odysseus but also Jesus-God within Christian patterns. The novel parallels William Shakespeare's play Hamlet most closely after Homer's work. Stephen Dedalus presents a theory of Hamlet based on twelve lectures given by Joyce in Trieste in 1912. Chief parallels include Shakespeare and Joyce King Hamlet and Leopold Bloom Prince Hamlet and Stephen. Gertrude corresponds to Molly Bloom while Claudius matches Buck Mulligan and Blazes Boylan. Joyce told Vladimir Nabokov around 1937 that using mythology was merely a whim. He later regretted his collaboration with Stuart Gilbert regarding these mythological frameworks.
The United States Post Office banned Ulysses following an obscenity trial in 1921. The prosecution stemmed from The Little Review serializing the Nausicaa episode which depicted characters masturbating. John S. Sumner Secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice instigated this legal action. The magazine was declared obscene resulting in the effective ban of Ulysses throughout the United States. Copies were burned by the Post Office Department during the 1920s. Random House and lawyer Morris Ernst arranged to import a French edition in 1932. They had a copy seized by Customs to contest the seizure legally. Judge John M. Woolsey ruled in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses that the book was not pornographic. This decision allowed free availability in the first English-speaking country. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in 1934. Ireland never officially banned the novel but customs loopholes prevented entry until the 1960s. The UK maintained its ban until 1936 when the book became freely available there.
Hans Walter Gabler published his corrected edition of Ulysses in 1984 as the most sustained attempt at a corrected text. John Kidd criticized this choice heavily in June 1988 within The New York Review of Books. Kidd charged that Gabler's changes overturned Joyce's last revisions in another 400 places. He claimed Gabler failed to follow any manuscript whatsoever making nonsense of his own premises. Gabler made genuine blunders such as changing Harry Thrift's name to Shrift based on handwriting irregularities. Charles Rossman revealed in December 1988 that some advisers felt too many changes were being made. Random House replaced the Gabler edition with its 1961 version in 1990 after consulting scholars. The Bodley Head press revived its 1960 version in the United Kingdom. Penguin dropped Gabler and reprinted the 1960 text in 1992. W.W. Norton announced plans to publish Kidd's edition but withdrew it when the Joyce estate objected. The estate refused to authorize further editions for a period before allowing Wordsworth Editions to reprint a bargain version in 2010.
Ezra Pound wrote in 1922 that all men should unite to give praise to Ulysses. Arnold Bennett expressed lack of admiration in The Outlook detailing one day in 700 pages. John Middleton Murry called Joyce a genius of the very highest order comparable to Goethe or Dostoevsky. James Douglas labeled Ulysses the most infamously obscene book in ancient or modern literature in the Sunday Express. Edmund Wilson described it as a work of high genius in The New Republic. Virginia Woolf termed it a memorable catastrophe immense in daring in 1923. T.S. Eliot stated in The Dial that it was the most important expression found by the present age. Karl Radek called it a heap of dung crawling with worms at the All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. Vladimir Nabokov named it the greatest masterpiece of 20th-century prose in a 1965 interview. Time Magazine Modern Library Folha de S.Paulo and CounterPunch have ranked it as the greatest novel of the 20th century.
Ulysses in Nighttown based on episode fifteen Circe premiered off-Broadway in 1958 with Zero Mostel as Bloom. Joseph Strick directed a film version in 1967 starring Milo O'Shea which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. RTÉ aired a full-cast unabridged radio production on Bloomsday 1982 running uninterrupted for 29 hours and 45 minutes. Naxos Records released the recording on 22 audio CDs in 2004. Frank Delaney launched weekly podcasts called Re:Joyce on Bloomsday 2010 discussing allusions page by page until his death in 2017. BBC Radio 4 aired a nine-part adaptation dramatised by Robin Brooks for Bloomsday 2012. Luciano Berio composed Thema Omaggio a Joyce between 1958 and 1959 as an electroacoustic composition based on the Sirens chapter. Grace Slick included references to Molly's infidelities in her song Rejoyce on Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album After Bathing at Baxter's. Kate Bush used sections of Molly Bloom's soliloquy in her 1989 song The Sensual World and renamed it Flower of the Mountain in 2011.
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Common questions
When was Ulysses by James Joyce published?
Ulysses by James Joyce was published on the 2nd of February 1922. Sylvia Beach handed three copies to James Joyce at her Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris on that date.
What specific day does the plot of Ulysses take place?
The novel chronicles the experiences of three Dubliners over a single day on the 16th of June 1904. Fans now celebrate this specific date annually as Bloomsday.
How did Ulysses become legal for sale in the United States?
Judge John M. Woolsey ruled in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses that the book was not pornographic in 1932. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in 1934 allowing free availability in the first English-speaking country.
Which edition of Ulysses is considered the corrected text published in 1984?
Hans Walter Gabler published his corrected edition of Ulysses in 1984 as the most sustained attempt at a corrected text. Random House replaced the Gabler edition with its 1961 version in 1990 after consulting scholars.
Who are the main characters in Ulysses and what mythological figures do they represent?
Leopold Bloom corresponds to Odysseus from Homer's epic poem the Odyssey while Stephen Dedalus mirrors Telemachus and Molly Bloom represents Penelope. Joyce discovered Victor Bérard's theory that The Odyssey had Semitic roots which influenced his creation of Leopold Bloom as a Jewish character.