James Joyce: Ulysses & NYC

Considered the greatest work of fiction in the English language of the 20th century, James Joyce's Ulysses was published almost exactly 100 years ago (February 2, 1922).

A retelling of Homer's Odyssey, the novel is set on June 16-17, 1904 following the doings-in-Dublin of writer Stephan Dedalus, advertiser Leopold Bloom, and his adulterous wife Molly. Their lives intersect in interesting ways over the course of this single day, 18 episodes corresponding to the 18 episodes of the Odyssey. The final episode is one of the most famous in literary history, a steam-of-consciousness interior monologue by Molly Bloom that runs for 50-pages but is in fact one long continuous sentence, ending with "and yes I said yes I will Yes."

The publication history of Ulysses is almost as complex as the novel itself. Deemed "obscene" by the moralist powers-that-be of the time, the book became the subject of an obscenity trial in NYC, and the book was initially pirated and published serially in magazines. It was published in NYC 1929 and the publisher's office was actually raided! Various censored and altered versions were published over the years before it was finally published in full, unchanged, many years later.

James Joyce never set foot in NYC in his lifetime but the story of his great novel in NYC is enthralling. Read all about it here. It's especially timely since, 100 years later, banning books is still happening in this country.

Plus ca change.