Ulysses  (English, Paperback, Joyce James)

The story of Ulysses is about one particular day in the life of the two protagonists, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus.

Summary Of The Book

This book provides the reader an insight into the activities of the characters and what goes on in their minds during the course of the day. The author's views on politics, marriage, and sex are interwoven with the plot of the story making it more effective.

The story begins at about 8am in Dublin, Ireland, when one of the protagonists, Stephen Dedalus, a young writer, has a chat with his two housemates, one a medical student, Buck Mulligan, who had offended him by talking ill of his mother, and the other an English student, Haines.

Stephen realizes that he cannot stay with Mulligan and Haines anymore. He has no place to go. He spends the rest of the day moving around the city interacting with totally different individuals and thinking about his past, his mother, and his family. Simultaneously, the life of the other main character of the story, Leopold Bloom, a part-Jewish advertising canvasser, also starts in another part of Dublin. As he prepares breakfast for his wife and collects the day's mail, he is sadly aware that one of the letters to his wife, Molly, is from her lover with whom she has been maintaining an amoral relationship. Molly is the third important character in the novel. From the letter it is clear that the two lovers are planning to meet later in the day. In dejection he goes out and spends some time doing different errands aimlessly and then goes to attend the funeral of a friend. Bloom and Stephen visit the post office for some work at the same time, but do not meet each other.

The book has 18 chapters, each describing an episode involving either of the two protagonists. The author writes about their encounters during the day, thoughts, memories, and views as they wander in the streets of Dublin. The author's views on politics, marriage, and sex are interwoven with the plot of the story making it more effective.

The novel Ulysses has some similarities to the famous poem by Homer, Odyssey, and there are parallels between characters and events in Joyce's novel and Homer's poem.

Ulysses was initially subjected to much scrutiny and criticism because of some of the obscene content, but it was later acknowledged as a modern classic. The book was adapted to a movie, theatre, TV, and radio.

About The Authors

James Joyce, an English novelist, was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882, and completed his education at University College Dublin.
His major works include Dubliners, Exiles, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, Finnegans Wake, The Dead , Modern Classic Selected Short Stories, and Chamber Music.

He writes modernist novels.

In 1904, Joyce met Nora Barnacle. They had two children. They settled in Trieste, Europe.  Joyce worked as a teacher there. Bloomsday is celebrated every year on the 16th of June in Dublin, the very day when the events in this book took place as a mark of acknowledgement of the literary contributions by Joyce. James Joyce died in Zurich on January 13, 1941.

Cedric Watts has provided the Introduction to Ulysses. He is an editor and a writer.

Some of his books are Joseph Conrad, Romeo and Juliet (Twayne's new critical introductions to Shakespeare), A Preface to Greene, and Conrad's "Nostromo" (Critical Studies).