A complete chapter-by-chapter summary of James Joyce's Ulysses, with all 18 episodes explained. Each card gives you the basics: the Dublin location, the time of day, the Homeric parallel, a plain-English summary of what happens, and the key themes to listen for. Read them in order, or dip in wherever you are in the book.
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7 of 18 episodes
“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan…”
Stephen Dedalus opens the day in a seaside tower, mocked by his roommate Buck Mulligan and unsettled by the recent death of his mother. He decides not to return that night.
“Bath. Cleanse from drugs of the day.”
Bloom drifts through the city, picks up a flirtatious letter under a false name, watches Mass, and ends in the warm narcotic of a public bath.
“How many! All these here once walked round Dublin.”
Bloom rides in a funeral carriage to the burial of Paddy Dignam, reflecting on death, his lost son Rudy, and his father's suicide.
“Father Conmee walked through Clongowes fields…”
Nineteen short scenes track minor and major characters crossing the city at the same hour, stitched together by glimpses of a viceregal procession.
“The summer evening had begun to fold the world in its mysterious embrace.”
Gerty MacDowell daydreams in the style of cheap romance novels while Bloom watches from a distance. Fireworks; a charged, private moment.
“Deshil Holles Eamus.”
Bloom visits a friend in labour. Medical students drink upstairs; the prose grows from Anglo-Saxon to modern slang, mirroring the development of a child.
“What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning?”
Bloom brings Stephen home. The chapter answers everything in cold catechism — kettles, water, urination under the stars — before Bloom finally goes to bed.