Leopold Bloom

Leopold Bloom is the protagonist of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, assuming the role of the 'Odysseus' character. Like the Greek hero in The Odyssey, he is absent at the beginning of the story, and does not feature until episode four of the novel (itself the opening episode of part two). Joyce introduces Bloom to the reader with the distinctive (and now semi-famous) words: Born in 1866, Bloom is the only son of Rudolf Virág (a Hungarian from Szombathely who emigrated to Ireland, converted from Judaism to Protestantism, changed his name to Rudolph Bloom and, later, committed suicide) and of Ellen Higgins, an Irish Protestant. He married Marion (Molly) Tweedy on 8 October 1888. The couple have one daughter, Millicent (Milly), born in 1889; their son Rudolph (Rudy), born in December 1893, died after eleven days. The family live at 7 Eccles Street in Dublin. Ulysses focuses primarily on Bloom and on the contemporary odyssey he embarks upon through Dublin over the course of the single day... full article at wikipedia