Serial Encounters: Ulysses and the Little Review

James Joyce's Ulysses was first published in New York in the Little Review between 1918 and 1920. It was controversial and stopped before Joyce had completed the work. This original study goes behind the scenes in Zurich and New York to recover long-forgotten facts that are pertinent to the writing, reception, and interpretation of Ulysses. It concludes by examining the myriad ways in which Joyce revised and augmented Ulysses while resident in Paris, making it more sexually suggestive and overt in response to the work's legal reception in New York.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 23 February 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

James Joyce's iconic novel, Ulysses, was first published in New York between 1918 and 1920. The work received a mixed reception upon its release, with some critics praising its innovative style and others condemning it for its explicit content. The serial version of the text, which was published in The Little Review between 1918 and 1920, differs significantly from the version most readers know today, the iconic volume edition published in Paris in 1922 by Shakespeare and Company.

Joyce began preparing much of Ulysses for serial publication while residing in Zurich between 1915 and 1919. This original study, based on sustained archival research, goes behind the scenes in Zurich and New York to recover long-forgotten facts that are pertinent to the writing, reception, and interpretation of Ulysses.

The Little Review serialization of Ulysses proved controversial from the outset and was ultimately stopped before Joyce had completed the work. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice had taken successful legal action against the journal's editors, on the grounds that the final installment of the thirteenth chapter of Ulysses was obscene. This triumph of the social purity movement had far-reaching repercussions for Joyce's subsequent publishing history, and for his ongoing efforts with the composition of Ulysses.

After chapters of contextual literary history (on the cultural world of The Little Review; the early production history of Ulysses; and the New York trial of 1921), the study moves to a consideration of the textual significance of the serialization. It breaks new ground in Joycean scholarship by paying critical attention to Ulysses as a serial text. The study concludes by examining the myriad ways in which Joyce revised and augmented Ulysses while residing in Paris; it shows how Joyce made Ulysses more sexually suggestive and overt, in explicit response to the work's legal reception in New York.

In conclusion, Ulysses remains a groundbreaking work of literature that has continued to inspire and challenge readers for over a century. The serialization of the text, and the subsequent legal reception in New York, played a significant role in shaping the novel's reception and interpretation. This original study provides valuable insight into the writing, reception, and revision of Ulysses, and sheds new light on Joyce's creative process.

Weight: 420g
Dimension: 233 x 155 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192864628