On this day in 1904, Leopold Bloom woke at 8 Eccles Street, Dublin, and began his odyssey through the city. He cooked a kidney for breakfast. He attended a funeral. He walked, thought, wandered, and wondered. He met Stephen Dedalus. And at the end of the longest day in literature, Molly Bloom said yes.
On this day in 1904, James Joyce walked out with Nora Barnacle for the first time. It was their first date. He would later set his masterpiece on this day, making it the most celebrated single day in literary history.
"Every life is many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves."
Bloom prepares breakfast, serves Molly in bed, reads a letter from Milly. The day begins with a grilled mutton kidney.
Bloom collects a letter from Martha Clifford at the post office. He wanders, buys lemon soap, contemplates a bath.
The funeral of Paddy Dignam. Bloom rides in a carriage with Simon Dedalus, Martin Cunningham, and Mr Power. Thoughts of death, of his father's suicide, of little Rudy.
The newspaper offices on Prince's Street. Headlines interrupt the narrative. Wind and rhetoric blow.
Bloom eats a gorgonzola sandwich and drinks burgundy at Davy Byrne's. Food and digestion consume his thoughts.
Stephen expounds his Shakespeare theory. Bloom passes through, a ghost in the library.
Nineteen vignettes crisscross the city. Father Conmee walks, the viceregal cavalcade passes, Dublin breathes.
Music fills the bar. Bronze by gold, Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy. Bloom writes to Martha while Simon sings.
The Citizen holds court. Bloom defends love against force. He escapes as a biscuit tin flies.
Gerty MacDowell on the beach at dusk. The fireworks of the bazaar. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
Mina Purefoy labors. English prose evolves from Anglo-Saxon to modern slang. Birth and language.
The brothel. Hallucinations. Bloom becomes a woman, a pig, a Lord Mayor. Stephen smashes a chandelier. Bloom protects him.
Bloom and Stephen, exhausted, drink coffee. A sailor tells dubious tales. Two wanderers rest.
Bloom returns home. Catechism style. Cocoa is made. The universe is measured. Stephen departs. Bloom goes to bed.
Molly's monologue. Eight sentences. No punctuation. The river of consciousness. Memory of Howth. Yes.
In the small hours, Bloom has returned to 7 Eccles Street. Molly drifts. The Liffey flows. Yes.