Ulysses

Ulysses narrates the passage through Dublin of its protagonist, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. Both, according to some authors and according to the custom of attributing autobiographical elements to literary works, alter egos of the author: Leopold (the old Joyce) and Stephen (the young one), during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904.

Joyce chose that date because it was the day he met for the first time the woman who would later become his partner, Nora Barnacle.

The title alludes to the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. There is a whole system of parallels (linguistic, rhetorical and symbolic) between the two works (for example, the correlation between Bloom and Odysseus, as well as that of Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus).