James Joyce

Ulysses

Published in Paris in 1922 to 2018 episodes, each in a different style, patterned on the Odyssey.

💡 Did you know? The novel is regarded as the pinnacle of literary modernism and one of the most difficult books ever written.

16 June

Joyce chose the day of his first outing with Nora Barnacle: fans make the Dublin pilgrimage every year.

💡 Did you know? Joyce chose 16 June 1904 because that was the day of his first outing with his future wife Nora.

Leopold Bloom

His day is an everyday odyssey: his wife Molly closes the novel with her famous monologue.

💡 Did you know? Leopold Bloom, an Irish Jew, is deliberately conceived as a modern counterpart to the hero Odysseus.

with Yes

Around 40 pages almost without punctuation: the most famous 'yes' in literary history.

💡 Did you know? Molly's closing monologue runs about 40 pages with almost no punctuation: one of the most famous passages in modernism.

stream of consciousness

Thoughts flow unfiltered onto the page: the technique revolutionised the modern novel.

💡 Did you know? The stream of consciousness reproduces the characters' unfiltered flow of thought: Joyce took it to the extreme.

Dublin

'If the city disappeared, it could be rebuilt out of my books': he left it at 22.

💡 Did you know? Joyce left Dublin at 22 and rarely returned: yet he wrote his entire body of work about that one city.

as obscene

Only a 1933 US court ruling declared the book art rather than pornography.

💡 Did you know? A 1933 US court ruling lifted the ban and explicitly declared “Ulysses” not obscene.

Nora Barnacle

With her he fled to the continent in 1904 to 1916 June was their first outing together.

💡 Did you know? Nora barely read a word Joyce wrote: “Why don't you write books people can understand?” she is said to have asked.

Dubliners

Fifteen stories about the 'paralysis' of his home city: publishers shied away for years.

💡 Did you know? “The Dead” is considered one of the finest short stories in world literature and was filmed by John Huston.

Finnegans Wake

Seventeen years of work: still counts among the most difficult books in the world.

💡 Did you know? Joyce worked 17 years on “Finnegans Wake”: written in an invented dream language drawn from many tongues.

quark

Murray Gell-Mann took it from the line 'Three quarks for Muster Mark!'

💡 Did you know? Physicist Murray Gell-Mann took the word “quark” from Joyce's line “Three quarks for Muster Mark.”

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Stephen Dedalus returns in 'Ulysses': his name cites the mythical craftsman Daedalus.

💡 Did you know? The novel introduces Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's literary alter ego, who reappears in “Ulysses.”

James Joyce

James Joyce (1882 to 1941) was an Irish writer and one of the most influential authors of modernism. His novel “Ulysses” revolutionised twentieth-century narrative art.

💡 Did you know? Joyce suffered from severe eye disease and wrote much of his work nearly blind, often in red crayon on large sheets.