Ulysses

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922 First edition. Limited to 1000 copies. The 1000 copies were divided into three limitations: 100 copies (nos. 1-100) printed on Dutch paper and signed by Joyce; 150 copies (nos. 101-250) printed on Vergé d'Arches paper; and the final 750 copies (nos. 251-1000) printed on linen paper, of which this is number 349. Original publisher's teal paper wrappers, lettered in white. Light rubbing to wrapper edges, wear to spine with a small chip below first spine band and some loss to lower spine, very mild crease to first several leaves, front wrapper joint tender but holding. Housed in custom slipcase with folding chemise, slipcase with some wear. Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, was first published serially in The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, at which time copies of the magazine were seized and the magazine's publishers were taken to trial due to the sexually explicit nature of the novel. Because of the controversy surrounding Ulysses, Joyce was unable to find a publisher for the book until his friend Sylvia Beach, the American owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, agreed to publish it. This first book edition was published in February 1922, in a limited run of 1000 copies. For a number of years, the book was banned and suppressed in various countries, though a turning point came on December 6, 1933 when U. S. Judge John Munro Woolsey ruled that the book was not obscene. It is now recognized as one of the most important works of Modernist literature. Assessing the impact of Ulysses, T. S. Eliot said of Joyce, "He single-handedly killed the 19th century." Ulysses is a stream-of-consciousness novel that follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin on an ordinary day (June 16, 1904 - notably the same day that Joyce first went on a date with Nora Barnacle, who would later become his wife). The book is heavily fragmented and allusive, with a structure that loosely parallels Homer's same-titled epic. Regarding the book's complexity, Joyce famously said, "I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of ensuring one's immortality.". First Edition. Original Wraps.