Ulysses.

JOYCE, James.

Item Number: 103674

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1927.

Early printing of the Paris edition of Joyce’s masterpiece. Octavo, bound in contemporary three quarters morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and ruled to the spine, raised bands, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition.

Ulysses was published in Paris by Shakespeare & Company in 1922. “The novel is universally hailed as the most influential work of modern times” (Grolier Joyce 69). After working seven years on Ulysses, Joyce, desperate to find a publisher, turned to Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company in Paris. “Within a month of the publication, the first printing of Ulysses was practically sold out, and within a year Joyce had become a well-known literary figure. Ulysses was explosive in its impact on the literary world of 1922… Then began the great game of smuggling the edition into countries where it was forbidden, especially England and the United States. The contraband article was transported across the seas and national borders in all sorts of cunning ways” (de Grazia, 27).