Before You Begin

Before you begin.

On a June morning in 1904, the day opens at a Martello tower above Dublin Bay. Stephen Dedalus walks toward his work as a young teacher; elsewhere in the city, Leopold Bloom begins his errands. Over the hours that follow, streets, shops, pubs, offices and homes become a map of a city lived from the inside.

Ulysses is arranged in eighteen chapters, and its manner keeps changing as the day moves. Conversation, memory, public spectacle, private thought and playful experiment take turns carrying the story. The ordinary details matter: a meal, a letter, a walk, a song heard through a doorway. Joyce lets a whole life gather around them without asking the reader to hurry past.

You can follow Bloom and Stephen separately, notice where their paths meet, and keep the names and places in view as Dublin unfolds. The illustrated gallery offers portraits, settings, scenes and objects from the book. It is a companion to the reading, not a key that gives away what comes later. Turn the page and begin with the morning.