CHEAT READ
Ulysses by James Joyce Written 19141921, Zurich, Switzerland Modernist fiction THE RUNDOWN
Over 18 chapters in three parts, Ulysses places an existential grid over a map of Edwardian Dublin on one day — June 16th, 1904 — before zeroing in on a handful of individuals. The first section introduces Stephen Dedalus, a writer and teacher. Stephen’s mother has recently died and between his Martello tower home and Sandymount strand, he discusses or contemplates Irish history, his own past and Jewish people. One of these, Leopold Bloom, we meet in Part II, The Odyssey. Bloom is an advertising canvasser whose wife Molly is possibly having an affair. Catholic guilt has clearly rubbed off on this Dublin Jew who pervs over women before attending a church service. At a funeral, in the company of Stephen’s father, he contemplates his dead son and own father. Further into the city he goes, through landmarks such as Davy Byrnes’ pub, the National Library and the Ormond Hotel where bar girls channel the “Sirens” of that chapter title.
NEED TO KNOW
Every June 16th, people cycle around Dublin in straw hats whooping cartoonishly. This is Bloomsday, an international celebration of Joyce’s modernist landmark which changed the written word forever.
Joyce’s sprawling, cavernous, musical, preposterous and infinitely expansive reworking of Homer’s Odyssey has become an institution of the English language since its publication in 1922. Many, however, view it as an impregnable, intimidating prospect. For this reason, it remains one of the most famous books to be ridiculed, parodied, opined over and even banned by people who have never even read it.
THE END
Bloom follows Stephen to a brothel where a mix up lands him in trouble. He flees, finds Stephen and brings him back to his house after he is punched by an English soldier. Stephen leaves and Bloom joins Molly in bed. Molly considers her past admirers and her acceptance of Bloom’s proposal.
THE VERDICT
Superlatives come ready-packaged with Ulysses. Joyce was the first world-beating Irish writer to emerge from an impoverished Catholic tradition. Ulysses was the first novel to master the liquefied, often punctuation-free stream-of-consciousness narrative style. It also, along with TS Eliot’s The Wasteland (published the very same year) invented modernism, which would of course eventually spawn postmodernism. The New York Times spoke of its “unprecedented, and unequalled, linguistic and stylistic virtuosity” but perhaps the best description goes to psychology guru Carl Jung who felt, after finishing it, that “a world has passed away, and is made new”.
Ulysses is not a casual read, for sure, but approached playfully and boldly it can become a sensory experience for those who persevere and embrace its slippery façade.
DID YOU KNOW?
Passages of “obscenity” meant the complete novel was banned in the UK until 1936. In the US, it got a 1922 release but was routinely burned by New York Postal officers. Validation came in 1933 when a court ruled in favour of publishers Random House (who had imported a French version), deeming it “not pornographic”.