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| Ulysses by James Joyce |
Ulysses by James Joyce
| Author(s) |
James Joyce |
|---|
| Country |
France |
| Language |
English |
| Genre(s) |
Modernist Novel |
| Publisher |
Sylvia Beach |
| Publication date |
2 February 1922 |
| Media type |
Print book (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages |
644–1,000, depending on edition |
| ISBN |
0-679-72276-9 |
| OCLC Number |
20827511 |
| Dewey Decimal |
823/.912 20 |
| LC Classification |
PR6019.O9 U4 1990 |
| Preceded by |
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1916) |
| Followed by |
Finnegans Wake
(1939) |
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Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal
The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,
it has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement".
"Before Joyce, no writer of fiction had so foregrounded the process of thinking."
Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the day of Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle).
The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into
Ulysses), the hero of Homer's
Odyssey, and establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel (
e.g., the correspondence of Leopold Bloom to Odysseus, Molly Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus). Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.
Ulysses is approximately 265,000 words in length, uses a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses),
and is divided into eighteen episodes. Since publication, the book
attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from early obscenity trials
to protracted textual "Joyce Wars."
Ulysses' stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—full of puns, parodies, and allusions, as well as its rich characterisations and broad humour, made the book a highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked
Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Structure:
Joyce divided
Ulysses into 18 chapters or "episodes". At first
glance much of the book may appear unstructured and chaotic; Joyce once
said that he had "put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep
the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant," which
would earn the novel "immortality".
The two schemata which Stuart Gilbert and Herbert Gorman released after publication to defend Joyce from the obscenity accusations made the links to the
Odyssey clear, and also explained the work's internal structure.
Every episode of
Ulysses has a theme, technique, and correspondence between its characters and those of the
Odyssey. The original text did not include these episode titles and the correspondences; instead, they originate from the Linati and Gilbert
schema. Joyce referred to the episodes by their Homeric titles in his
letters. He took the idiosyncratic rendering of some of the
titles––'Nausikaa', the 'Telemachia'––from Victor Bérard's two-volume
Les Phéniciens et l’Odyssée which he consulted in 1918 in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.
Part I: The Telemachiad
Episode 1, Telemachus
It is 8 a.m. Buck Mulligan, a boisterous medical student, calls Stephen Dedalus (a young writer first encountered in
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) up to the roof of the Sandycove Martello tower
where they both live. There is tension between Stephen and Mulligan,
stemming from a cruel remark Stephen has overheard Mulligan making about
his recently deceased mother and from the fact that Mulligan has
invited an English student, Haines, to stay with them. The three men eat
breakfast and walk to the shore, where Mulligan demands from Stephen
the key to the tower and a loan. Departing, Stephen declares that he
will not return to the tower tonight, as Mulligan, the "usurper", has
taken it over.
Episode 2, Nestor
Stephen is teaching a history class on the victories of Pyrrhus of Epirus.
After class, one student, Sargent, stays behind so that Stephen can
show him how to do a set of arithmetic exercises. Stephen looks at the
aesthetically unappealing Sargent and tries to imagine Sargent's
mother's love for him. Stephen then visits school headmaster, Mr. Deasy,
from whom he collects his pay and a letter to take to a newspaper
office for printing. The two discuss Irish history and the role of Jews
in the economy. As Stephen leaves, Deasy makes a final derogatory remark
against the Jews, stating that Ireland has never extensively persecuted
the Jews because they were never let in to the country. This episode is
the source of some of the novel's most famous lines, such as Dedalus's
claim that "history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" and
that God is "a shout in the street."
Episode 3, Proteus
Stephen finds his way to Sandymount Strand
and mopes around for some time, mulling various philosophical concepts,
his family, his life as a student in Paris, and his mother's death. As
Stephen reminisces and ponders, he lies down among some rocks, watches a
couple and a dog, scribbles some ideas for poetry, picks his nose, and
urinates behind a rock. This chapter is characterised by a stream of consciousness
narrative style that changes focus wildly. Stephen's education is
reflected in the many obscure references and foreign phrases employed in
this episode.
Part II: The Odyssey
Episode 4, Calypso
The narrative shifts abruptly. The time is again 8 a.m., but the
action has moved across the city and to the second protagonist of the
book, Leopold Bloom, a part-Jewish
advertising canvasser. Bloom, after starting to prepare breakfast,
decides to walk to a butcher to buy a pork kidney. Returning home, he
prepares breakfast and brings it with the mail to his wife Molly
as she lounges in bed. One of the letters is from her concert manager
Blazes Boylan. Bloom is aware that Molly will welcome Boylan into her
bed later that day, and is tormented by the thought. Bloom reads a
letter from their daughter. The chapter closes with Bloom defecating in
the outhouse.
Episode 5, Lotus Eaters
Bloom makes his way to Westland Row
post office where he receives a love letter from one 'Martha Clifford'
addressed to his pseudonym, 'Henry Flower'. He meets an acquaintance,
and while they chat, Bloom attempts to ogle a woman wearing stockings,
but is prevented by a passing tram. Next, he reads the letter and tears
up the envelope in an alley. He wanders into a Catholic church service
and muses on theology. He goes to a chemist where he buys a bar of lemon
soap. He then meets another acquaintance, to whom he unintentionally
gives a racing tip for the horse Throwaway. Finally, Bloom heads towards
the baths.
Episode 6, Hades
The episode begins with Bloom entering a funeral carriage with three others, including Stephen's father. They drive to Paddy Dignam's
funeral, making small talk on the way. The carriage passes both Stephen
and Blazes Boylan. There is discussion of various forms of death and
burial, and Bloom is preoccupied by thoughts of his dead son, Rudy, and
the suicide of his father. They enter the chapel into the service and
subsequently leave with the coffin cart. Bloom sees a mysterious man
wearing a macintosh
during the burial. Bloom continues to reflect upon death, but at the
end of the episode rejects morbid thoughts to embrace 'warm fullblooded
life'.
Episode 7, Aeolus
At the office of the Freeman's Journal,
Bloom attempts to place an ad. Although initially encouraged by the
editor, he is unsuccessful. Stephen arrives bringing Deasy's letter
about 'foot and mouth' disease, but Stephen and Bloom do not meet.
Stephen leads the editor and others to a pub, telling an anecdote on the
way about 'two Dublin vestals'. The episode is broken up into short
sections by newspaper-style headlines, and is characterised by an
abundance of rhetorical figures and devices.
Episode 8, Lestrygonians
Bloom's thoughts are peppered with references to food as lunchtime
approaches. He meets an old flame and hears news of Mina Purefoy's
labour. He enters the restaurant of the Burton Hotel where he is
revolted by the sight of men eating like animals. He goes instead to Davy Byrne's pub,
where he consumes a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and a glass of burgundy,
and muses upon the early days of his relationship with Molly and how
the marriage has declined: 'Me. And me now.' Bloom heads towards the National Museum
to look at the statues of Greek goddesses, and, in particular, their
bottoms. Bloom suddenly spots Boylan across the street and, panicking,
rushes into the museum.
Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis
At the National Library, Stephen explains to various scholars his biographical theory of the works of Shakespeare, especially
Hamlet, which he claims are based largely on the posited adultery of Shakespeare's wife.
Bloom enters the National Library to look up an old copy of the ad he
has been trying to place. He encounters Stephen briefly and unknowingly
at the end of the episode.
Episode 10, Wandering Rocks
In this episode, nineteen short vignettes depict the wanderings of
various characters, major and minor, through the streets of Dublin. The
episode ends with an account of the cavalcade of the Lord Lieutenant, William Humble, Earl of Dudley, through the streets, which is encountered by various characters from the novel.
Episode 11, Sirens
In this episode, dominated by motifs of music, Bloom has dinner with Stephen's uncle at a hotel, while Molly's lover, Blazes Boylan,
proceeds to his rendezvous with her. While dining, Bloom watches the
seductive barmaids and listens to the singing of Stephen's father and
others.
Episode 12, Cyclops
This chapter is narrated by an unnamed denizen of Dublin. The
narrator goes to a pub where he meets a character referred to only as
the 'Citizen'. When Leopold Bloom enters the pub, he is berated by the
Citizen, who is a fierce Fenian
and anti-Semite. The episode ends with Bloom reminding the Citizen that
his Saviour was a Jew. As Bloom leaves the pub, the Citizen, in anger,
throws a biscuit tin at Bloom's head, but misses. The chapter is marked
by extended tangents made outside the voice of the unnamed narrator:
hyperboles of legal jargon, Biblical passages, Irish mythology, etc.
Episode 13, Nausicaa
Gerty MacDowell, a young woman on Sandymount strand, contemplates
love, marriage and femininity as night falls. The reader is gradually
made aware that Bloom is watching her from a distance, and as she
exposes her legs and underwear to him it is unclear how much of the
narrative is actually Bloom’s sexual fantasy. Bloom’s masturbatory
climax is echoed by the fireworks at the nearby bazaar. As Gerty leaves,
Bloom realizes that Gerty has a lame leg. Bloom, after several
digressions of thought, decides to visit Mina Purefoy at the hospital.
The style of the first half of the episode borrows from (and parodies)
romance magazines and novelettes.
Episode 14, Oxen of the Sun
Bloom visits the maternity hospital where Mina Purefoy is giving
birth, and finally meets Stephen, who is drinking with Buck Mulligan and
his medical student friends. They continue on to a pub to continue
drinking, following the successful birth of the baby. This chapter is
remarkable for Joyce's wordplay, which seems to recapitulate the entire
history of the English language. After a short incantation, the episode
starts with latinate prose, Anglo-Saxon alliteration, and moves on through parodies of, among others, Malory, the King James Bible, Bunyan, Defoe, Sterne, Walpole, Gibbon, Dickens, and Carlyle, before concluding in a haze of nearly incomprehensible slang.
Episode 15, Circe
Episode 15 is written as a play script, complete with stage
directions. The plot is frequently interrupted by 'hallucinations'
experienced by Stephen and Bloom—fantastic manifestations of the fears
and passions of the two characters.
Stephen and Lynch walk into Nighttown, Dublin's red-light district.
Bloom pursues them and eventually finds them at Bella Cohen's brothel.
When Bloom witnesses Stephen overpaying for services received, Bloom
decides to hold onto the rest of Stephen's money for safekeeping.
Stephen hallucinates that the rotting cadaver of his mother has risen up
from the floor to confront him. Terrified, Stephen uses his walking
stick to smash a chandelier and then runs out. Bloom quickly pays Bella
for the damage, then runs after Stephen. Bloom finds Stephen engaged in a
heated argument with an English soldier who, after a perceived insult
to the King, punches Stephen. The police arrive and the crowd disperses.
As Bloom is tending to Stephen, Bloom has a hallucination of Rudy, his
deceased child.
Part III: The Nostos
Episode 16, Eumaeus
Bloom and Stephen go to the cabman's shelter to restore the latter to
his senses. At the cabman's shelter, they encounter a drunken sailor,
D. B. Murphy. Riding in the cab, Stephen sings a spirited song by the
Baroque composer Johannes Jeep, and he and Bloom bond over its misogyny.
The episode is dominated by the motif of confusion and mistaken
identity, with Bloom, Stephen and Murphy's identities being repeatedly
called into question. The rambling and laboured style of the narrative
in this episode reflects the nervous exhaustion and confusion of the two
protagonists.
Episode 17, Ithaca
Bloom returns home with Stephen, who refuses Bloom's offer of a place
to stay for the night. The two men urinate in the backyard, Stephen
departs and wanders off into the night,
and Bloom goes to bed. The episode is written in the form of a rigidly organised catechism,
and was reportedly Joyce's favourite episode in the novel. The style is
that of a scientific inquiry, with questions furthering the narrative.
The deep descriptions range from questions of astronomy to the
trajectory of urination.
Episode 18, Penelope
The final episode, which also uses the stream of consciousness technique seen in Episode 3, consists of Molly Bloom's Soliloquy:
eight great run-on sentences (without punctuation) describe the
thoughts of Molly, Bloom's wife, as she lies in bed next to her husband.
Molly guesses that Bloom had an orgasm that day, and is reminded of
his past possible infidelity with other women. She considers the
differences between Boylan and Bloom, in terms of virility and
masculinity. Molly feels that she and Bloom are lucky, despite their
current marital difficulties. Molly recalls her many admirers, previous
and current. She wishes she had more money to buy stylish clothes, and
believes that Bloom should quit his advertising job and get better paid
work elsewhere. Molly thinks about how beautiful female breasts are,
particularly compared to male genitalia. She thinks of the time Bloom
suggested she pose naked in exchange for money. Her thoughts return to
Boylan and of her orgasm earlier.
A train whistle blows outside, and Molly thinks of her childhood in
Gibraltar. Out of boredom and loneliness, she had resorted to writing
herself letters. Molly thinks about how her daughter sent her a card
this morning, whereas her husband received a whole letter. She imagines
that she may receive another love letter from Boylan. Molly recalls her
first love letter from Lieutenant Mulvey, whom she kissed under the
bridge in Gibraltar. She later lost contact with him and wonders what he
would be like now. Her thoughts turn to her singing career, and Molly
wonders what path her career could have taken had she not married Bloom.
Molly senses the start of her period, confirmation that her tryst
with Boylan has not caused a pregnancy. She gets up to use the
chamberpot. Events of the day spent with Boylan run through her mind.
Molly climbs quietly back into bed and thinks of the times she and
Bloom have had to relocate. Her mind then turns to Stephen, whom she met
during his childhood. She conjectures that Stephen is probably not
stuck-up, and is most likely clean. She fantasizes about having sexual
encounters with him. Molly resolves to study before meeting him so he
will not look down upon her. Molly thinks of her husband's strange
sexual habits. Molly speculates that the world would be much improved if
it consisted of Matriarchal Societies. Thinking again of Stephen, and
then of his mother's death, evokes memory of Rudy's death, whereupon she
ends this line of thought as it is making her depressed. Molly thinks
about arousing Bloom in the morning, then revealing the details of her
affair with Boylan to make him realise his culpability. She decides to
procure some flowers, in case Stephen Dedalus decides to come around.
Thinking of flowers, Molly remembers the day she and Bloom spent at
Howth, his marriage proposal, and her acceptance: "yes I said yes I will
Yes."
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