Ulysses is a contemporary novel by an Irish writer James Joyce.  Although this novel, which is considered to be the top of the contemporary literature, has an ordinary plot, it includes a lot of historical, philosophical, literature and cultural references.

The main character and plot are rather common – one day from a life of a Dublin citizen of Jewish origin, Leopold Bloom. Bloom spends this day in a publishing house, in the streets and cafes of Dublin, at a funeral of his friend, by the gulf coast, in a maternity hospital where he gets to know Stephen Dedalus, a young teacher of a local school, in a public house, and at last, in his own house where late at night he brought the drunk Dedalus, who had lost his roof.

In his novel, Joyce parodies and retells a lot of plots and works from the world literature, quotes old myths and creates new ones. This makes the novel so unique.