Auditing Bloom, editing Joyce: accounting and accountability in Ulysses

This paper reviews the content and significance of the ‘budget’ in James Joyce's Ulysses. The budget, in effect a summary of the cash transactions of the novel's central character appearing towards the end of the book, is audited by reference to the preceding text, comparing the description of each financial transaction as it occurs with its subsequent recording. Editorial controversies on the revision of the original 1922 text are assessed in the context of the discrepancies between the budget and the foregoing descriptions. Various interpretations of the role of the budget in the novel are considered, culminating in the observation that it foreshadows the later realisation of the socially constructed nature of accounting and its lack of a simple relationship with an independent financial reality.