FROM THE FOREWORD:

By now, no one needs debate the merits of Ulysses;  it is one of the greatest novels of all time and a worthwhile addition to any collection.

However, when Ulysses was first published in The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach in 1922, it caused a sensation.

Audiences and critics alike had never read anything like it; the book’s acrid dissonances and sexually satanic rhythms seemed  barbaric.

Today, Ulysses still has the power to shock. With inimitable dramatic flair, James Joyce conducts a performance so ferocious that the writing seems as revolutionary as it did on those historic days when it was first published. Even after nearly 100 years, this free form prose/poetry tour de force still sounds fresh, scary, new and beautiful. Astonishing really. You will find it immensely gratifying.

JAMES JOYCE, (1882-1941) Irish novelist and poet is one of the most famous and controversial writers of the 20th century. Ulysses, his Homer-inspired masterwork, was banned, criticized, and censored on moral grounds, with its detractors calling it obscene and incomprehensible, obviously the work of a madman.

Today it is considered one of the supreme modernist masterpieces of the 20th century.

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