From the Erotic to the Obscene: Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract

One of the signs that betray how deeply Molly Bloom and her soon-to-be-cuckolded husband are connected in James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is that she entrusts him with the task of bringing her soft-porn novels such as Ruby: The Pride of the Ring. This particular book features an illustration, and, with Leopold Bloom, we catch a glimpse of a naked woman lying on the floor.’ A little later, true to his promise, Bloom looks at some soft-porn novels in a second-hand bookshop, focusing on erotic publications of the kind that should appeal to Molly. The best specimen is entitled Sweets of Sin. Bloom’s eyes scan the pages and catch a few titbits:

Her mouth glued on his in a luscious voluptuous kiss while his hands felt for the opulent curves inside her deshabille. […] The beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her queenly shoulders and heaving embonpoint. An imperceptible smile played round her perfect lips as she turned to him calmly. (194)

The narrator then lends a voice to Bloom’s aroused sensuality, thereby providing an accurate phenomenological analysis of the effects of erotic literature on a male character:

Warmth showered gently over him, cowing his flesh. Flesh yielded amply amid rumpled clothes: whites of eyes swooning up. His nostrils arched themselves for prey. Melting breast ointments (for him! for Raoul!). Armpits’ oniony sweat. Fishgluey slime (her heaving embonpoint!). Feel! Press! Cherished! Sulphur dung of lions!