Other editions of book Ulysses

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Patrick Gibson, known for his roles in The OA, The Tudors and The Passing Bells. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Declan Kiberd Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses, is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and even been deemed blasphemous, but remains an undisputed modernist classic: ceaselessly inventive, garrulous, funny, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive. It confirms Joyce's belief that literature 'is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man'.

Ulysses is regarded by many as the single most important novel of the 20th century. It tells the story of one day in Dublin, June 16th 1904, largely through the eyes of Stephen Dedalus (Joyce's alter ego from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) and Leopold Bloom, an advertising salesman. Both begin a normal day, and both set off on a journey around the streets of Dublin, which eventually brings them into contact with one another. While Bloom's passionate wife, Molly, conducts yet another illicit liasion (with her concert manager), Bloom finds himself getting into arguments with drunken nationalists and wild carousing with excitable medical students, before rescuing Stephen Dedalus from a brawl and returning with him to his own basement kitchen. In the hands of Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan, experienced and stimulating Joycean readers, and carefully directed by Roger Marsh, Ulysses becomes accessible as never before. It is entertaining, immediate, funny, and rich in classical, philosophical, and musical allusion.

Ulysses is one of the greatest literary works in the English language. In his remarkable tour de force, Joyce catalogues one day - June 16, 1904 - in immense detail as Leopold Bloom wanders through Dublin, talking, observing, musing - and always remembering Molly, his passionate, wayward wife. Set in the shadow of Homer's Odyssey, internal thoughts - Joyce's famous stream of consciousness - give physical reality extra color and perspective. Though Ulysses is widely regarded as a "difficult" novel, this fresh and lively reading shows its comic genius as well as its great moments of poignance, making it more accessible than ever before.

Ulysses takes us on the journey of two men, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, through an hour-by-hour account of their lives for one day. These men cross paths in a series of coincidental events and listeners learn how interconnected they are even though they are not friends. Dedalus, a teacher, is dissatisfied with life. He spends the morning avoiding mocking friends, listening to a mundane lecture from his superior on life, and walking alone while reflecting on his younger self. Bloom, at the same time, is discovering his wife's affair (although he is having one of his own under a pseudonym), and pursuing an unsuccessful attempt at getting an advertisement ran for a client. Bloom feels like an outsider amongst acquaintances and reminisces on a time when things between he and his wife were good and happy. Dedalus and Bloom continue to be in the same place at the same time throughout the novel as the story continues into themes of xenophobia, the quest for paternity, heroism in compassion, and many other of life's questions. Ulysses was written to mimic The Odyssey by Homer in a modern day retelling of the poem and has many parallels between the characters and plot events making the novel an epic adventure through two very ordinary lives.

Joyce’s experimental masterpiece set a new standard for modernist fiction, pushing the English language past all previous thresholds in its quest to capture a day in the life of an Everyman in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Obliquely borrowing characters and situations from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce takes us on an internal odyssey along the current of thoughts, impressions, and experiences that make up the adventure of living an average day. As his characters stroll, eat, ruminate, and argue through the streets of Dublin, Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness narrative artfully weaves events, emotions, and memories in a free flow of imagery and associations. Full of literary references, parody, and uncensored vulgarity, Ulysses has been considered controversial and challenging, but always brilliant and rewarding.