Joyce's Ulysses Redefines Modern Fiction.

Not only does the conception of the twentieth century’s most influential work of prose fiction owe a good deal to tales of mythological wanderings—it is based in part on Homer’s Odyssey (c. 725 b.c.e.; English translation, 1614)—but the story of its execution has also acquired semimythological trappings. These, too, have to do with origins and survival, with wartime dislocations and the travail of exile, with steadfastness and luck.