Why Ulysses still matters — one day in Dublin, 18 styles, and the novel that proved an ordinary life contained everything. Ulysses takes place on a single day — June 16, 1904. It follows one ordinary man through breakfast, a funeral, work, lunch, a pub, a beach, a hospital, a brothel, and finally home. Across roughly 700 pages, James Joyce attempts to fit the whole of human consciousness inside those hours. The Opening