Ulysses

James Joyce's Ulysses is a conundrum of a book: some say it's unreadable stream-of-conscious gobbledegook, while others claim it to be the best book ever written. The 900 page work details a single day in the life of Jewish Irishmen Leopold Bloom (now known as "Bloomsday") as he carries on in Dublin.

Each of its 18 chapters correspond to an element of Homer's Ulysses, relate to a particular organ of the body, and is written in a different literary style. Thus it is certainly not for the casual reader. But when read in its entirety (once, maybe twice) Ulysses is certain to stand out as a cornerstone of Modernist literature.