Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: Introibo ad altare Dei.
(James Joyce, Ulysses)
Ulysses is set in Dublin and the action takes place on 16th June 1904, a date celebrated as 'Bloomsday.'
It describes the day as spent by Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, and Stephen Dedalus.
Bloom works for a Dublin newspaper, Dedalus is a young intellectual whose thoughts are carried away by abstruse philosophy, and Molly Bloom is a bored housewife.
[The James Joyce Page]
