Is there a novel more revered—and more famously unread—than James Joyce’s Ulysses? Despite its complexities, this love letter to Dublin, published a century ago, is a very readable chronicle of everyday life and everyday struggles. It’s a book about marriage, sex, religion, food, art, loneliness, companionship, and so much else. It’s a book, that is, about life. We hope that the following essays will send you on a quest to discover, or rediscover, this most staggering of epics.
It Happened One Day in June
by Robert J. Seidman
Why Ulysses is as vital as ever—compelling, complex, and direct
The Believer
by Keri Walsh
When nobody would touch Joyce’s manuscript, Sylvia Beach stepped in
Ter Conatus
by Donal Ryan
Reading Joyce in a minor key
For the Joy of Joyce
by Amit Chaudhuri
Abandon the notion of high-minded seriousness and simply enter into the novel’s flow
Know Me Come Eat With Me
By Flicka Small
In the world of Ulysses, food turns out to be everything
