Bloomsday at 100

Two reflections on James Joyce's legacy

Robert H. Bell June 1, 2004 - 4:50am

Bloomsday, June 16, 1904, is the day anatomized, commemorated, and celebrated in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Striking testimony to the enduring power of Ulysses is that we mark not the birth of its author or the publication of the book but the imagined day of the fiction. Ulysses has inspired a holiday to rival St. Patrick’s Day. Joyce’s vision of Dublin on June 16, 1904, is so compelling that it has...

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About the Author

Robert H. Bell is Kenan Professor of English and founding director of the Project for Effective Teaching at Williams College. He is the author of Jocoserious Joyce: The Fate of Folly in 'Ulysses' and, with William C. Dowling, A Reader's Companion to 'Infinite Jest'.