I have been disapointed by the formatting of the Gutenberg edition of Ulysses for some time now. It lacks chapter breaks, so the only navigation points are the three parts of the book. It makes it hard to pick out a favorite episode to read. There is also inconsistent emphasis, capitalization, margins, spacing, etc.

Therefore, I have created an ePub 2/3 edition of Ulysses that reproduces, as closely as I can digitally, the textual formatting and layout of the Orchises Press facsimile of the original Shakespeare and Company edition. It can be downloaded here.

I set out to make the most software-agnostic edition I could, first creating an ePub 3 file as close to spec as I was able, then adding support for ePub 2 readers. The Calibre reader and the latest version of iBooks display the formatting more or less as intended. The latest version of the Nook software reader does a decent enough job but does not preserve uppercase capitalization. The only dedicated eReader I have access to is a first-generation Nook, and it is consistent with the Nook software reader. The file can be converted to Mobi, using Calibre, for reading on the Kindle. A quick test of the Kindle software reader is decent — there are some issues with indentation. I do not know how it would look on a Kindle.

Anyway, this is, as Ulysses has always been, a work in progress. It was not my intention to make any changes to the text, so any errors that existed in the already-digital text are still there. I hope my humble, hand-crafted effort brings some enjoyment this Bloomsday.

• Download Ulysses.epub
• Last Modified: June 16, 2012
• For: Any ePub 3-capable eReaders (iBooks, Nook, Kobo)