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"I hold this book to be the most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape." T.S. Eliot
Ulysses depicts a day in Leopold Bloom's life, broken into episodes analogous to Homer's Odyssey and related in rich, varied styles. Joyce's novel is celebrated for its depth of learning, earthy humor, literary allusions and piercing insight into the human heart.
First published in Paris in 1922 Ulysses was not published in the United States until 1934. Immediately recognized as an extraordinary work that both echoed the history of English literature and took it in new, unheralded directions, Joyce's book was controversial. Its widespread release was initially slowed by censors nitpicking a few passages. The novel is challenging, in that it is an uncommon reader who will perceive all that Joyce has put into his pages upon first reading, but it is uniquely rewarding for anyone willing to follow where the author leads. Far more than a learned exercise in literary skill, Ulysses displays a sense of humor that ranges from delicate to roguish as well as sequences of striking beauty and emotion. Chief among the latter must be the novel's climactic stream of consciousness step into the mind of the protagonist's wife, Molly Bloom, whose open-hearted acceptance of life and love is among the most memorable and moving passages in English literature.
With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Ulysses is both modern and readable.
About the author
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 - 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, most famously stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, his published letters and occasional journalism.
Joyce was born in 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, into a middle-class family. A brilliant student, he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, despite the chaotic family life imposed by his father's alcoholism and unpredictable finances. He went on to attend University College Dublin.
In 1904, in his early twenties, Joyce emigrated to continental Europe with his partner (and later wife) Nora Barnacle. They lived in Trieste, Paris, and Zurich. Although most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe centres on Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there. Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses, he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."
Summary
"I hold this book to be the most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape." T.S. Eliot
Ulysses depicts a day in Leopold Bloom’s life, broken into episodes analogous to Homer’s Odyssey and related in rich, varied styles. Joyce’s novel is celebrated for its depth of learning, earthy humor, literary allusions and piercing insight into the human heart.
First published in Paris in 1922
Ulysses was not published in the United States until 1934. Immediately recognized as an extraordinary work that both echoed the history of English literature and took it in new, unheralded directions, Joyce’s book was controversial. Its widespread release was initially slowed by censors nitpicking a few passages. The novel is challenging, in that it is an uncommon reader who will perceive all that Joyce has put into his pages upon first reading, but it is uniquely rewarding for anyone willing to follow where the author leads. Far more than a learned exercise in literary skill,
Ulysses displays a sense of humor that ranges from delicate to roguish as well as sequences of striking beauty and emotion. Chief among the latter must be the novel’s climactic stream of consciousness step into the mind of the protagonist’s wife, Molly Bloom, whose open-hearted acceptance of life and love is among the most memorable and moving passages in English literature.
With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of
Ulysses is both modern and readable.
