Ulysses

The entire action unfolds over a single day—June 16, 1904 (now celebrated as Bloomsday)—in Dublin, Ireland. The novel loosely parallels Homer’s Odyssey, with modern Dublin standing in for ancient Greece:

• Leopold Bloom, a Jewish advertising canvasser, serves as the everyday “hero” (Ulysses/Odysseus).
• Stephen Dedalus, a young intellectual and artist (from Joyce’s earlier A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), represents Telemachus.
• Molly Bloom, Leopold’s wife, echoes Penelope.

The “plot” follows ordinary events: Bloom’s wanderings through the city (breakfast, work, a funeral, lunch, encounters in pubs, a visit to a maternity hospital, and a night in the red-light district), interspersed with Stephen’s experiences and eventual meeting with Bloom. Not much “happens” in a traditional sense—it’s more about inner thoughts, sensations, and the rhythm of urban life.

The book divides into 18 episodes, each with a distinct literary style—from interior monologue to newspaper headlines, catechism Q&A, and a hallucinatory play script in the “Circe” episode. The final chapter features Molly’s famous unpunctuated soliloquy, ending with her affirmative “yes.”