The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses

(Paperback)

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THE SUNDAY TIMES LITERARY NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014. THE ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014. For more than a decade, the book now considered the most important novel in the English language was illegal to sell, advertise or import. Its author lived in exile; his supporters on the edge of the law. THE MOST DANGEROUS BOOK tells the painful yet exhilarating story of how Joyce's ULYSSES was conceived, written, published, burned, acclaimed and excoriated before taking its place as a masterpiece of world literature.

Reviews

Riveting... populated with enough larger-than-life characters and twists to make a fiction writer envious' -- Matthew Pearl
A wonderfully eye-opening read... superb' -- Frank Delaney
Birmingham's imaginative scholarship brings Joyce and his world to life -- Louis Menand
Kevin Birmingham has a deep love of Ulysses, and knows everything about Joyce. His learned book is a gripping page-tuner -- A N Wilson, Sunday Telegraph
A riveting account of just how difficult it was to bring Ulysses into the world * Sunday Herald *
It is a wonderful guide to the 20th century's most dangerous, brilliant book * The Sunday Times *
With humour, excitement and conspicuous scholarship, literary historian Kevin Birmingham recounts the creation of the novel, the fight against censorship, and the establishment of a classic that changed the face of literature * The Good Book Guide *
Few books about publishing manage to be this gripping. Like the novel which it takes as its subject, it deserves to be read * Economist *
Birmingham tells the story with a mixture of compelling insight and deeply researched knowledge to form that most unusual hybrid: an erudite page-turner * Mail on Sunday. *

Author Bio

Kevin Birmingham is a lecturer in History & Literature at Harvard. He was a bartender in a Dublin pub featured in ULYSSES for one day before he was unceremoniously fired. This is his first book.