Ulysses

James Joyce's most important book, now with new cover art. This edition of Ulysses also features the celebrated and pioneering translation by Antonio Houaiss, as well as a new Reading Guide prepared by Ricardo Lísias.

Ulysses recounts the events of one day in the life of advertising salesman Leopold Bloom. He goes on a trip with his friend Stephen Dedalus and, at the end of the day, must return home, where his wife and daughter await him. The story takes place in Dublin, Ireland, in 1904, and is a parody of Homer's Odyssey . The book is divided into 18 chapters, each of which is linked to an episode in the Odyssey , as well as a setting, a time of day, a color, and a part of the human body.

Published in 1922, the book was deemed "indecent" by Virginia Woolf and was banned in some countries. It represents a watershed moment in literature, revolutionizing it with its experimental approach. Its major innovation—the diversification of styles, the streams of consciousness, and interior monologues arranged without any concern for who is speaking or rambling—horrified and enchanted readers and critics. For T.S. Eliot, "By using myth, by manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity, Joyce is following a method that others must follow."

Ulysses continues, to this day, to challenge readers around the world.