Ulysses is usually deemed to be Joyce’s
greatest
achievement, and it is the zenith of modernist writing in the
novel form but is barely recognizable as a novel or as any other kind
of
writing. It brings together anecdotes, journalistic writing, drama,
questionnaire, bawdy episodes, stream of consciousness writing,
arachaisms, neologisms and - surprisingly - more. It was serialized
first in the Little Review in 1918 and published first in Paris
in 1922, although its censorship for obscenity in America and England
were not lifted until the mid-1930s. In terms of its story it defies
abridgement or explanation except that it all takes place on one day,
16 June 1904, or ‘Bloomsday’, which was the anniversary of Joyce’s
first walk with his beloved Nora Barnacle. It (very) loosely follows
the episodes of Ulysses from the Odyssey of Homer though in a reordered
form, with Stephen Dedalus representing Telemachus, Leopold Bloom
Ulysses and Molly Bloom Penelope. The central characters explore
various sites and happenings around Dublin such as a newspaper office,
a brothel, a funeral, and public houses. It is an immense
achievement of innovation or a confusing mess depending on one’s opinion, but
regardless it is an extraordinary reading experience. To read it
without the many books of annotation that have been drawn up as guides
is to miss the inordinate number of literary allusions, Irish in-jokes,
subtleties and so on. It is, however, the only way actually to enjoy
the novel. Acknowledging that you are not the perfect reader
(i.e. in possession of all of human knowledge) will allow you to find
yourself in Bloom and his companions rather than a century’s worth of
critics and scholars. If you truly love it or are an English student
read it with notes the second time through.