James Joyce's Divine Comedy

One of the great literary anniversaries last year was the death of Dante in 1321, while this year marks the centenary of the appearance of James Joyce’s Ulysses. At first glance it would be hard to find two more ill-assorted authors. Dante is the poetic voice of medieval Christendom, exalted and sublime; Joyce is a modern rebel and blasphemer, sordid and salacious, a man described by Virginia Woolf as “a queasy undergraduate scratching his pimples”.