[Brian Allgar]

My first thought was Bleak House at Pooh Corner, but I couldn't get beyond the title. Here's another attempt at something.

ODYSSES (The Odyssey by Homer/Ulysses by James Joyce)

One year after the end of the Trojan war, and after many stirring adventures, Odysseus is ship-wrecked off the coast of Ireland. Swimming to shore through the Guinness-dark sea, he makes his way to Dublin, and finds himself in a bar.

Encountering Leopold Bloom and Steven Daedalus, he learns to drink vast quantities of sea-dark Guinness. The ensuing pub-crawl lasts for almost nine years, interrupted only by occasional pauses for defecation and urination.

During this binge, they meet a number of strange characters including a militant feminist named Circe, who believes that men are swine, and a sinister pimp called Hector, who describes himself as a “Tamer of Whores”. Odysseus finally drags himself away from his drinking companions, saying that he must “get back to the little woman.”

Meanwhile, Penelope, patiently waiting for her husband to return, whiles away the time by doing craft-work and indulging in erotic fantasies.