This short guidebook written specifically for firsttime readers of Ulysses by a veteran teacher of Joyces novel offers a way in to one of the most pleasuregiving books ever created. After an introduction surveying Joyces techniques both traditional the creation of plausible characters and a fully realized Dublin setting and modern interior monologue the Homeric parallels stylistic experimentation an episodebyepisode commentary leads readers through the fictional events of June 16 1904 explaining obscurities identifying main themes translating foreign phrases in short making understandable the world of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold and Molly Bloom. An afterword looks at Ulysses as a whole arguing that like all comic masterpieces it applies a sophisticated treatment to ordinary materials. An annotated bibliography suggests further resources for studying the novel.