Happy Bloomsday! It was 100 years ago today that Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus circuited Dublin on Everyman’s journey. Millions will be marking the occasion today with a pilgrimmage, a reading, a staged reenactment or simply a pint.

Addendum: Thanks to acm for pointing me to this news which threatens to disrupt the Bloomsday celebration (from comments). Somehow it seems that Joyce’s ‘high-faluttin’ fun’ ought to be immune to litigiousness if anything is:

Copyright row threat to ‘Ulysses’ centenary: “Stephen Joyce, the grandson and last surviving relative of the writer, has caused consternation by declaring that any public reading of what is regarded as the most influential novel of the 20th century will be a breach of copyright and cannot go ahead without permission and payment. Readings in both London and Dublin to launch the first ever unabridged audio CD of the book – the 22 discs last 27 hours – have been cancelled because of fears of litigation.

Much of the difficulty stems from a change in copyright law in 1996 which extended the period of copyright from 50 years to 70 years after an author’s death. This meant Joyce, who died in 1941, was out of copyright for five years – allowing readings – before becoming copyrighted again.” (Independent.UK)

Here is Ulysses online. Dig in.