James Joyce - Meet Leopold Bloom

CAUTION:  SOME OF THE WORDS AND SCENES IN THIS CLIP - ABOUT THE NOVEL ULYSSES, BY JAMES JOYCE - MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME PEOPLE.  PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

James Joyce believed that the only "complete all-around character" in world literature was Ulysses (from Homer's Odyssey).  Joyce, parenthetically, pronounced the word  "Oolissays."

With the Odyssey as his plan, and Ulysses as his model, Joyce set out to create his own story for the modern-world.  His characters would do real things - even things one tends to keep completely private.  How else - we can suppose Joyce wondered - would someone create an "all-around" character?

Trying to keep his characters real, and their actions honest, Joyce ran afoul of some who thought he went too far for the written word.  Obscenity issues quickly surfaced, after the book was published in 1922.

Other critics were stunned by the brilliance of Joyce's work.  They still are.

See, also:

James Joyce - Intro to Ulysses

James Joyce - Meet Stephen Dedalus

James Joyce - Obsessed with Dublin

Credits

From the British television series, "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers." 

This video clip is from the episode, "James Joyce's Ulysses," which originally aired 10 January 1988, on Channel Four.  Online, courtesy BFI National Library and YouTube.

Director:
Nigel Wattis

Writers:
Nigel Wattis and Gillian Greenwood

Commentators:
Anthony Burgess
Clive Hart

James Joyce:
Bryan Murray

Leopold Bloom:
David Suchet

Stephen Dedalus:
John Lynch

Molly Bloom:
Sorcha Cusack

May Dedalus:
Patricia Mort

Nora Joyce:
Deirdra Morris

Frank Budgen:
James Aubrey

Narrator:
Tony Doyle