Ulysses

Ulysses By James Joyce

A satire of Homer’s classic, //Odyssey//, this is a novel written for adults, but it is often used in high school AP English courses.

"Ulysses" is an 18 chapter book in which each chapter represents about one hour in the course of a day and reflects a chapter in the Odyssey. The story follows an ordinary day in Dublin.

It caused much controversy because, as a day in the life of an ordinary person is sometimes wont to do, it touched upon obscene points such as urination and masturbation.

 Before the story was even published, it had been censored of numerous sexual and excretion references by the New York "Little Review," a magazine who was to release it in serial publications. However, in 1920, on three separate occasions, the US Post Office intercepted the magazines and had them burned. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice found out about the magazine segments and brought the owners of the magazine to court, where they were forced to stop printing episodes of "Ulysses."  The trial scared off any potential publishers and printers, but eventually Joyce had the book released in France. However, Joyce still found resistance to it in English speaking countries. The US Post Office held any copies of the book it found and had them burned. British customs officials also confiscated it and had it sent to the Home Office for examining. In 1922, the Director of Public Prosecution deemed it indecent and ordered that customs not let the book get through to Britain. He made this decision having read only 40 pages.  Not until 1933 was the ban challenged. US publisher Random House brought the book before a judge who, upon reading the sexual passages, declared, "nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac. Ulysses may, therefore, be admitted into the United States." This decision, made based on effects that the writing has on the average reader, became the new standard by which obscenity was judged in America (2001).

(2001). James Joyce’s Ulysses. //The File Room.// Retrieved from [] on June 17, 2012.