Ulysses

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

One day in Dublin — June 16, 1904. Leopold Bloom, an advertising canvasser, wanders through Dublin in a modern retelling of Homer's Odyssey. The novel that changed literature forever and was banned as obscene for over a decade.

Historical Significance:
Joyce spent seven years writing Ulysses, publishing it in Paris on his 40th birthday, February 2, 1922, through Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company bookshop. It was immediately banned in the United States and United Kingdom for obscenity — the Molly Bloom soliloquy, with its frank depiction of female sexuality, scandalized authorities.

The landmark 1933 court decision United States v. One Book Called Ulysses lifted the ban, with Judge John Woolsey declaring the book was not pornographic but a "sincere and honest effort to show how the minds of certain characters work." The decision was a milestone for literary freedom.

June 16 is now celebrated worldwide as "Bloomsday." T.S. Eliot called the novel "the most important expression which the present age has found." It consistently tops lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

This public domain classic was originally published in 1922. Free to read and share.