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.
Proteus's close reading map just grew — three new sections added 24th September.
8 of 18 episodes
“Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls.”
Leopold Bloom arrives. He cooks a kidney for breakfast, feeds the cat, brings Molly her post — including a letter from Blazes Boylan — and quietly senses what's coming.
“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.
“Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butterscotch.”
Hungry Bloom wanders past food shops and pubs, recoils at a brutal lunchtime crowd, and settles for a quiet cheese sandwich at Davy Byrne's.
“Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, steelyringing.”
A chapter written like music. Bloom eats dinner alone as barmaids flirt and Simon Dedalus sings, while Boylan rides off to meet Molly.
“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.
“(The Mabbot street entrance of nighttown…)”
Bloom follows a drunk Stephen into the red-light district. A hallucinatory play unfolds: shame, transformation, ghosts, and finally a quiet rescue.
“Yes because he never did a thing like that before…”
Molly Bloom's unpunctuated nocturne. Eight long sentences carrying memory, lovers, irritation, tenderness, and a final, famous, affirming Yes.