Ulysses Annotated

Book Description

Here substantially revised and expanded, Don Gifford's annotations to Joyce's great modern classic comprise a specialized encyclopedia that will inform any reading of Ulysses. Annotations in this edition are keyed both to the reading text of the new critical edition of Ulysses published in 1984 and to the standard 1961 Random House edition and the current Modern Library and Vintage texts.
Gifford has incorporated over 1,000 additions and corrections to the first edition. The introduction and headnotes to sections provide general geographical, biographical and historical background. The annotations gloss place names, define slang terms, give capsule histories of institutions and political and cultural movements and figures, supply bits of local and Irish legend and lore, explain religious nomenclature and practices, trace literary allusions and references to other cultures.
The suggestive potential of minor details was enormously fascinating to Joyce, and the precision of his use of detail is a most important aspect of his literary method. The annotations in this volume illuminate details which are not in the public realm for most of us.

Customer Reviews:

Essential is the key word to all these reviews.......2006-11-13

When I first tucked James Joyce's ULYSSES under my arm, Don Gifford's ULYSSES ANNOTATED was tucked under the other. (My biceps became very well developed because of this.) It took me an entire summer to read the books side by side but how worthwhile it was. Gifford's essential line by line, almost word by word, guidance made ULYSSES less overwhelming than if I had tried to tackle it alone. Once I got through ULYSSES the second time (the following spring) I was able to go to the more overarching analyses of Joyce's masterpiece. Stuart Gilbert's ULYSSES and Richard Ellmann's ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY were particularly helpful.

notes only!.......2006-05-17

Just a heads up that this is NOT an annotated edition of Ulysses (as I mistakenly thought in purchasing)(duh). It is 600-some pages of notes only and does not include the text of the novel.

The essential guide.......2005-01-11

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This book is not for the casual reader. But this annotated edition makes it all worthwhile. You'll get genuine, comprehensible guidance. If you must read "Ulysses," this edition might be most helpful.

Thorough, but not best for the novice reader.......2003-05-04

Gifford's book offers fascinating glosses and contextual annotations for Ulysses, but was not quite what I was looking for to help me with my first attempt at the book. The annotations are mostly disjoint explanations of specific allusions and references.

There are other guides to Ulysses that are better suited for the novice Joyce reader, helping the reader to keep track of the plot, the progress of the Odyssey and Hamlet corelations and explaining the shifts in style through the book. This kind of hand-holding may be unnecessary for more sophisticated readers, but for my first read, it was essential!

Break it Down.......2002-10-11

All the surface details, references to mythology, history, politics, music, literature, etc, can be found in this book (Joyce's novel is not included within, just the annotations, but it still clocks in at 700 pages!). If you want to know exactly what Joyce was referring to--this is the place. However, it won't necessarily tell you what he MEANT (aheheh, some things must be left to the reader).

Of course, if you've never read Ulysses you don't need to know every obscure reference. Just pick up REJOYCE or THE NEW BLOOMSDAY BOOK, which have generalized overviews of the novel. This is for the deep scholars. But as Joyce said, all he expects of his readers is that they study his works for the rest of their lives.

Amazon.com

Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it sufficiently unobscene to allow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession." None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of the final chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you're willing to be buffeted, tickled, challenged, and (occasionally) vexed by Joyce's sheer command of the English language.

Among other things, a novel is simply a long story, and the first question about any story is: What happens?. In the case of Ulysses, the answer might be Everything. William Blake, one of literature's sublime myopics, saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.

Both characters add their glorious intonations to the music of Joyce's prose. Dedalus's accent--that of a freelance aesthetician, who dabbles here and there in what we might call Early Yeats Lite--will be familiar to readers of Portrait of an Artist As a Young Man. But Bloom's wistful sensualism (and naive curiosity) is something else entirely. Seen through his eyes, a rundown corner of a Dublin graveyard is a figure for hope and hopelessness, mortality and dogged survival: "Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody really?" --James Marcus

Book Description

This revised volume follows the complete unabridged text as corrected in 1961. Contains the original foreword by the author and the historic court ruling to remove the federal ban. It also contains page references to the first American edition of 1934.

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The 1934 text, as corrected and reset in 1961. Ulysses is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. It was not easy to find a publisher in America willing to take it on, and when Jane Jeap and Margaret Anderson started printing extracts from the book their literary magazine The Little Review in 1918, they were arrested and charged with publishing obscenity. They were fined $100, and even The New York Times expressed satisfaction with their conviction. Ulysses was not published in book form until 1922, when another American woman, Sylvia Beach, published it in Paris for her Shakespeare & Company. Ulysses was not available legally in any English-speaking country until 1934, when Random House successfully defended Joyce against obscenity charges and published it in the Modern Library. This edition follows the complete and unabridged text as corrected and reset in 1961. Judge John Woolsey's decision lifting the ban against Ulysses is reprinted, along with a letter from Joyce to Bennett Cerf, the publisher of Random House, and the original foreword to the book by Morris L. Ernst, who defended Ulysses during the trial.

Customer Reviews:

Ulysses, great or not ?.......2007-09-20

Probably every avid reader feels compelled at some time in life to read "Ulysses", especially as it was voted the best work of fiction of the 20th century at the turn of this millenium.

The style of writing throughout the book is usually referred to as "stream of consciousness". This method has been subsequently employed in other works such as "To The Lighthouse" and "The sound and the Fury". However, in my opinion, these latter two works used the style much more succesfully than Joyce.

If you are currently reading "Ulysses" at the moment, expect a very patchy book. The second half is , in general, better than the first half, with the two penultimate chapters "Cabman's shelter" and "Ithaca" standing out from the rest. After that, the description of birth in "Oxen in the sun" is also excellent , as is the part dsecribing Paddy Dignam's funeral early in the book. As to the rest of the book, I believe there is little to recommend it.

Opinion tends to be polarized about "Ulysses" . Its severest critics suggest that it is only praised by those who are scared to be criticized for not understanding the book, a sort of "emperor's new clothes" scenario. There is, however, more than a grain of truth in this opinion. It does seem incredible that a book with so much "padding" could be so highly thought of. It might have made a very good book of around 200 pages, but one does have the sensation that Joyce is taking his readers for a ride in many parts. ( Of course, his ultimate send up of his readers was "Finnegan's Wake"! ). Furthermore, the much lauded sense of humour is overblown. At best, this is a mildly amusing book with one or two laugh out loud lines. To label it as "very funny" is pretentiousness itself. Most of the humour is also of the "toilet" variety.

On the positive side, there are some interesting passages as mentioned above. However, the main interest lies in seeing this new attempt at a style of writing , and to try to fathom out why this book has become the "darling" of the ( maybe "so-called" ) intellectuals. If you want to see a better example of joyce's talents, try "Potrait Of The Artist As A Young Man", or even "The Dubliners".

ULYSSES is Joyce's Retelling of the Homerian Epic . Massive, Maddening, Enigmatic and Priceless.......2007-09-13

James Joyce (1882-1941) was a tormented Roman Catholic who forsook his faith, picked up his pen and wrote the great novel "Ulysses" based on the epic poem "The Odyssey" by Homer. It is impossible to explain Ulysses or give it an adequate review in the short space alloted this reviewer. Howwver, I would offer the following thoughts for those brave souls eager to enter the labyrinthal complexities of a genius's mind:
Joyce tells the story of one day in the life of the people of Dublin, Ireland on June 16, 1904 (the day he first met his wife Nora Baracle). As he does so in eighteen chapters linked with similar episodes in "The Odyssey." During the day (about 900 pages) we follow the two chief characters on their peregrinations and adventures. Those characters are:
Stephen Dedalus-Named for the Greek mytholgical figure Dedalus who builds wings to fly in the sky; his son Icarus flies too close to the sun and perishes while Dedalus lands in Sicily. Stephen was the chief character in Joyce's "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." He is tormented by his failure to pray at his dying mother's bedside; tormented by the Roman Catholic Church's burden of guilt laid upon his soul. Stephen is an aspiring author. He is ambivalent in his feelings toward his native Ireland. As the novel begins he is living in the English built castle
The Martello Tower along with his friend Buck Mulligan and an Englishman named Haines. Stephen is a teacher who is supervised by the horrible Deasy a West Englishman who in an Orange Protestant. Deasy is a false Nestor to the callow Stephen. Stephen is an intellectual with biographical correspondence to the author James Joyce.
Leopold Bloom-A 38 year old advertising man who is married to the sensuous Molly. Bloom is a middlebrow who roams the streets of Dublin plying his advertising career engaging in arguments, dreaming about a sexy young thing on the beach and saving Stephen from trouble in the famous Nighttime section of the book. Leopold does not practice his Judaism. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. The novel ends with Bloom returning home to his unfaithful wife Molly just as Odysseus returned home to his faithful wife Penelope in the Homeric epic. Bloomsday is celebrated worldwide on Feb. 2 each year (the date of Joyce's birth in 1882).
c. Molly Bloom-Her nearly fifty pages of stream of consciousness prose was until recently the longest sentence in the English language. She is a coarse, bawdy, serially cheating wife to Bloom.
I do not claim to understand everything going on in Ulysses. Joyce said it would take the professors and critics centuries to explore its rich minefield of literary allusions, jokes, and analysis of the human condition. Ulysses has been banned and blasted by literary critics as the same time it has been praised. You may find out yourself by giving it a close reading with a good commentary handy. Joyce plums the depths of the human mind. He is a great Irish genius whose work demands study.

A REAL FAILURE AS A NOVEL .......2007-08-03

As a devout modernist, I put off the pleasure of reading this book for years. I wanted to have the time and leisure to give it proper attention. I had taken a seminar with Anthony Burgess on ULYSSES at CCNY in the early seventies. We did a close reading of the Nighttown chapter and were supposed to read the rest of the novel on our own. I never did. But Burgess' enthusiasm was impressive and though I wasn't entirely convinced, I was certainly intrigued. In earlier years I had read DUBLINERS and PORTRAIT and even some of FINNEGANS WAKE and was especially impressed by Joyce's mastery of language and the poetic quality of his prose.

An early retirement offer finally had me reading the "GREATEST NOVEL OF THE 20th CENTURY" last month in Riverside Park. Some nice cigars added to the mix.

The first few chapters were stunning. The powers of description, the playfulness and musicality of language, the wit and intelligence of Stephen and Buck were a delight. I was obviously in the hands of a master. Shakespeare even came to mind.

But then something happened. The humanity and poetry seemed to drain out of the thing as we were treated to yet another chapter of theoretical "experimentation in narrative technique". The idea of writing a novel, each chapter of which is written in a parodistic or borrowed style seems to me a doomed one. (And more postmodernist than modernist). Apparently even Ezra Pound objected. I found myself asking, "Couldn't Joyce have found his own voice and style to narrate this section?" An entire narrative chapter in the question and answer form of a Catholic Catechism seems affected at first. After thirty pages it is deadly and even embarrassing. And then another in the style of a men's sporting magazine, and then another in the style of a women's magazine? What's the point? (Other than showing off?) And the Freudian/Surrealist kitsch of the endless Nighttown chapter was downright infantile. Talk about dated! This is novel writing from the outside in. First you have an "experimental" concept and then you fit in some narrative stuff. It's no wonder academics use this book as major fodder. It seems to be written with them in mind.

Likewise the useless tie ins with Homer's ODYSSEY. One can't help thinking of them as a desperate attempt to add structure, incident and theme to a book fairly bereft of them. Not to mention adding a bit of literary pedigree to offset the "obscenity".

Which brings me to my last point. The fancy smorgasbord of styles cannot disguise that as a novel, ULYSSES is sorely lacking. All the criteria by which we judge a novel - character depth and development, involving narrative, thematic focus, depth of feeling etc., seem totally absent. Basically what we have here is a brief Balzacian "realist" sketch, padded out and styled-up beyond belief.

Now this is really a minority opinion: not only is ULYSSES a failure, but the reason I think it is a failure is that it is a transitional work. Joyce was obviously bored with novelistic narrative but still felt obliged to accommodate. With FINNEGANS WAKE, he hit stride and finally found his métier - a book as a place to play with language and psyche for his own pleasure, without regard for traditional novelistics.

A NOTE ON EDITIONS: The huge academic controversy about which edition of ULYSSES is "authentic" or "correct" is, as one might expect, much ado about very little. Serious textual issues are minimal. Most of the typos in the 1922 edition were corrected in 1960/1 by the editors of the Modern Library in consultation with Richard Ellmann. That text was also used for the Bodley Head and current Everyman editions. Gabler later went overboard, making some highly questionable decisions. His edition is also difficult to read due to small print, layout, line-numbering etc. Danis Rose's edition went even further and "corrected" Joyce's compound words etc. - a disgrace.

I ended up reading an online version edited by Jorn Barger - a very sensible amalgam of the best work of previous editors. It took some time and expense to print out, but it was definitely worth it.

Classic of Modern Literature.......2007-07-23

While this text is undoubtedly one of the most difficult that I have read, the sheer skill at manipulating language that Joyce demonstrates is remarkable. The result is a novel that offers a most intimate study into the human method of thinking.

Not for the faint of heart, however, because this is a text that requires dedication, as the games that Joyce plays with language and the thinking of his characters often obfuscates the meaning.

Well, it's a classic, it once earned deserved praise as new & original but..........2007-07-10

Many scenes stick in one's mind forever, for example when Leopold Bloom releases his bowels or when the coffin falls on the road. I finally came to understand the stream-of-consciousness technique and realized it's not Joyce's stream we're wading in but the carefully reproduced stream of the character's consciousness. I found this particularly effective and fun reading of Stephen Dedalus's morning at school. Other scenes like Molly Bloom's grand finale are simply beautiful and literally breathless, especially if you take punctuation as a breathing signal.

And I'm especially glad to read it now that I live in Dublin. I've lived in Ringsend three months, I've visited a friend in Mullingar, and I've shopped at Buckley's butcher shop, all of which are mentioned in Ulysses. I even bought my copy of the book at the Martello tower featured at the start of the novel.

But overall, one feels Ulysses is somewhat contrived. Crucify this humble critic if you will, but reproducing the structure of the Odyssey is a clever but artificial way of bringing epic grandeur to what is nothing more than a very ordinary day. Why go through all that trouble? I do agree with the lesson but find it rather long winded. In painting, a still life by Chardin is as realistic as an imperial coronation scene by David, but with much less fuss.

And then there are the inside jokes. References to Walt Whitman and to Edgar Allen Poe (which I got only because I remembered Tom Hanks reciting Poe's "To Helen" in The Ladykillers) and other writers abound. Shouldn't a great work stand on its own, at least where its intended audience is concerned? Ulysses fails utterly in this respect unless we restrict the audience to academics.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin

Ulysses: A Facsimile of the First Edition Published in Paris in 1922

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A beautiful edition of one of the most important books ever written
Best of best
Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish
It's the whole pie with jam in.
The book for a serious reader of Joyce

Ulysses: A Facsimile of the First Edition Published in Paris in 1922
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Orchises Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0914061704

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful edition of one of the most important books ever written.......2007-09-17

James Joyce's Ulysses closely parallels the events of Homer's The Odyssey, but this journey is far more surreal than Homer could have ever dreamt. The story is set in one day, and mostly follows the principal character Leopold Bloom going through the day.
Ulysses does not follow typical conventions of literature, and therein lies its beauty and its freedom. The text is littered with puns and seemingly nonsensical and comical language, one of the highlights being the section written as a play in which all manner of chaos takes place. This text may at first appear to be senseless but perseverence will reward those who would spend time examining its language, which is often made up of multiple words, each constituent part of which relates to a wider topic. This is, in a sense, a scholalry text, as it is so much more than a story, and you need to have the willingness to at least attempt to understand the broader referential context, much of which I am also working on. If that seems like too much hard work, then I doubt Ulysses would provide much enjoyment to you, although that's not to say it can't be read without additional knowledge. It does help to know some of the things going on in Joyce's mind and the history/culture of his beloved Ireland.
The version being reviewed here is by Orchises Press, which is a fantastic reproduction of the very first edition of Ulysses printed by Shakespeare and Company. The binding is quite tight and the print quality superb. There is also plenty of space for literary scholars to scribble notes. As it is a sturdy edition, this is built to last. There is no introduction to the text or any essays, and some may prefer this. For first time readers, it can be better to read the text without any preconceptions, just like people who would have read it when it was first published. The cloth cover on this edition, as others have commented, appears a little greener than the original, but most surviving originals have aged to appear exactly like this anyway. As it so closely resembles a vintage copy, it is a very exciting prospect to read Ulysses in the same way its principal adoptors did in the early 1920s. As it is not a vintage copy, you do not need to worry about being ever so careful. Of course, it is still expensive and it is best to treat it with care, but if you had a 1922 copy, you would probably keep it in a cabinet, trying not to disturb its delicate state. For owners of the original who would love to read their vintage copy, but too afraid to, this may be a great solution. Ordering this from the UK from Amazon, it took about three weeks to arrive here from the US, and it was a really terrific moment when it arrived, removing the clingfilm and starting reading it. It is, as a side note, quite a shame that UK readers do not favour hardback editions of books. It is quite difficult to buy new editions of classic books on hardback, unless of course, you turn to the second hand market. It is just a shame that the UK does not seem to appreciate premeire hardback editions of classic texts. oh well...
In many ways the Orchises Press version suits both collectors and serious readers. Of course, it is more expensive than the paperback version, and recommended only to real enthusiasts. For me, this is a definitive edition because literary essays, introductions and annotations mean very little to me, as I like to derive my own impressions by reading and do my own research on specific things. As an MA Comparative Literature student interested in Joyce, I feel this edition can be used for serious research without the supplementary scholarly material because it leaves you free to have just the text and your impressions.
If this edition proves too dear, I believe the Modern Library (or was it Everyman's Luibrary) have an edition currently in print and should be available to order from most retail bookstores. I saw a copy in my local Borders for £13.99, and if you are considering getting a decent hardback edition, perhaps you could go for that edition, as the Modern Library has an excellent range of titles and deserves to be supported.

To conclude, Joyce had an extraordinary imagination and wonderful command of the English language. He is a master of the English language and this is one of his most captivating work. Personally I prefer Finnegans Wake because if you persevere with it, past the first 100 pages, you find some side-splittingly humourous puns. In any case, I will leave my fondness for Finnegans Wake for another review. For now, grab a copy of Ulysses and enter the bizarre world of Joyce where the ordinary mundane things become surreal adventures, and language becomes so unfamiliar that it begins to start making sense again.

Best of best.......2007-08-03

The best edition of what's considered by many the apotheosis of English fiction. As mentioned in the front matter, "this book reproduces, as closely as offset printing will allow, Roger Lathbury's copy of the first edition of Ulysses published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1922. Broken type, signature numbers, and the colophon have been left as printed." Editorial slip-ups are therefore obviously included, adding a quaint historical nuance.

The perfect gift for any fan of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, this edition is elegant, a pleasure to hold and read, and ideal for anyone new to and wishing to appreciate Ulysses. (Most mass market editions, while well edited, are otherwise cheap products.)

Two outstanding aids for appreciating Ulysses are Wings of Art: Joseph Campbell on James Joyce, and Stuart Gilbert's James Joyce's Ulysses.

Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish.......2007-05-19

The three previous reviews are right on: to my mind (and I confess that I am not unique in this) Ulysses is the greatest novel in world literature. It is unrivalled in style (who could rival it?) or in character. And who is not moved by the pathos and humor of the book, the sorrows and triumphs of L Boom? This lovely edition befits the novel itself. You may want to read and re-read and take notes in "corrected" editions. This is the one to stare at lovingly, longingly.

It's the whole pie with jam in........2007-02-20

Let's not mince words: Ulysses is one of the highest achievements of literary modernism. But it is also a book that must be read again and again (and again) if it is to be understood and enjoyed. Why buy a pulpy and cheaply made edition that falls to pieces on the second read? The Orchises edition, as a physical artefact, is not only aesthetically worthy of the text it presents (including the generous white space framing the text itself)--it also has the durability and weight you'd normally expect from a Bible.

Other reviewers have detailed how this book is a faithful facsimile of the 1922 editions. The only other thing I would add is that this is the edition whose colour scheme Joyce himself oversaw: The white text and blue background of the cover symbolise the pentelic marble of Greece and the greenblue of the Mediterranean respectively (which are also the colours of the Greek flag).

I thoroughly recommend this beautiful book for anyone who is serious about Ulysses.

The book for a serious reader of Joyce.......2001-04-19

The Orchises Press edition stands out for three reasons. The first is that it reproduces--with impressive attention to detail--the first edition of Joyce's novel. The second reason is that the large, widemargined pages add the pleasure of reading to the pleasure of reading Ulysses (there is something missing, after all, in the insubstantial, tinytype levity of the paperback editions). Finally, the weight of the paper, the strength of the binding makes this edition one that will last (and you will not, as with the paperback editions, be forced to transcripe all your notes from a book that falls apart after three readings). For those who seek the "authenticity" of a first edition, who admire Joyce or who will be studying the novel for years to come, this is the edition to buy.

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Buy the right audio version - Jim Norton/Marcella Riordan
Ulysses in its best rendition
Ulysses read by Jim Norton
NOT JIM NORTON BUT GET THE DONAL DONNELLY AUTHORIZED RECORDING
Worth every cent

Ulysses (Naxos AudioBooks)
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Naxos Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 9626343095
Release Date: 2006-10-03

Customer Reviews:

Buy the right audio version - Jim Norton/Marcella Riordan.......2007-01-20

Definitely buy this Jim Norton version. Do not get the Donal Donnelly version that one reviewer recommends -- I followed his advice and it was a huge mistake, now I am purchasing the Norton version. The Donal version is haltingly slow with disruptive pauses between each word, even in dialogue. It's so bothersome -- the reading is like a 3rd grader would read. This Jim Norton version runs over 27 hours, but the Donal Donnelly version runs over 40 hours -- the extra time? It's spent in awkward pauses that break the flow of the language and the dialogue -- you totally lose the beauty of Joyce. Don't make the costly mistake that I made -- buy the right one the first time. Now that I have this Norton version, I can happily sail through Ulysses and appreciate Joyce's supreme writing. If you really want to get through this novel, the audio is a tremendous help to play along with you as you read.

Ulysses in its best rendition.......2006-08-10

Launched for the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, this meticulous 22-CD performance of the novel brings it fully to life in ways that are at times indescribably beautiful. Whatever is difficult in the novel becomes much more accessible as the spoken word. Both the male and female narrations are off the charts. As for the music, it is masterful and never intrusive or pretentious. Yes, even this oral rendition is enhanced by a gloss, whether the one included in the set or a separate rendition (the one I used was James Heffernan's lectures, also on CDs, from the Teaching Company). Put it all together and you have the greatest novel in English in its highest and best expression.

Ulysses read by Jim Norton.......2006-08-08

I recently returned from Dublin where I met many Irish people and native "Dubs," as they call themselves. Everyone said the same thing about "Ulysses", that is "I tried to read it but could not get through it."

Jim Norton brought "Ulysses" to life for me. I followed along as he read and began to understand the rythm of the text. "Ulysses" became exciting instead of imposing.

Jim Norton is truly gifted: Great voice and wonderful imagination.

NOT JIM NORTON BUT GET THE DONAL DONNELLY AUTHORIZED RECORDING.......2006-07-14

Jim gets a little carried away like Pacino chewing carpets. If you like that kind of thing, well, it wears thin with repeated listening. For instance in chapter one he really gets into a Vincent Price reading Poe mode at "let me be and let me live". and the intrusive intro music, fahggetabowdid

instead get the excellent and very listenable DOnal Donnelly recording, very well done with the corrected text. I listen to it repeatedly and constantly, and meanings emerge very gratifyingly. JOyce is to be heard rather than seen (the ineluctable modality of the visible), and often and forever. As for the the Dubliner stories, again pass by Norton and go for Setlock on Commuter's Library audiobooks. UNfortunately is still only on tape, but the subtley of his tempered readings bear repeated and gratifying listening. Save Norton for the stage. Joyce is forever and ever.

Worth every cent.......2005-11-23

As an undergraduate, I tried and failed to read James Joyce's Ulysses the conventional way - I think it took me six months to finish chapter 1. Having treated myself to the audiobook, I can say that it's a completely different experience - Jim Norton's and Marcella Riordan's masterful recording really brings the text to life. On a purely practical level, the lengthy stream-of-consciousness bits make a whole lot more sense when they're read with the intonations of natural speech, and the variation in vocal tone makes it much easier to stay engaged in sections that otherwise tend towards the soporific. Most impressive are the 'voices' Jim Norton does for all the different characters - Stephen Dedalus's 'thoughts' are all done in a low-pitched deadpan monotone that perfectly captures his personality, while Buck Mulligan is loud, brash and has a much stronger Irish accent (this difference in volume is large enough to be a potential problem for someone listening through headphones). Norton's skill is particularly noticeable in 'ensemble' scenes such as the library, where he has to switch voice every couple of lines. I've got the Oxford Classics edition of the book (1922 text) and it's almost identical to the recording - very occasionally there's a word or two that's different. This time round I'm actually really enjoying Ulysses - who would've thought.

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Works if given a chance
I hope there's better out there
ULYSSELESS
A way in to Ulysses
An excellent companion piece

James Joyce's Ulysses
Stuart Gilbert
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0394700139
Release Date: 1955-01-12

Book Description

With the passing of each year, Ulysses receives wider recognition and greater acclaim as a modern literary classic. To comprehend Joyce's masterpiece fully, to gain insight into its significance and structure, the serious reader will find this analytical and systematic guide invaluable. In this exegesis, written under Joyce's supervision, Stuart Gilbert presents a work that is at once scholarly, authoritative and stimulating.

Customer Reviews:

Works if given a chance.......2007-01-16

Four stars, not five, if only because I do agree somewhat that this study can be as complex as the novel itself. I think that the reason for this is that Joyce's work is, indeed, so rich and allusory that a full-length treatment like this is demanded. Ulysses is to the novel what Jorge Borges's short stories are to that literary art form.

By the way, 12 years ago I took a college course on Joyce and spent seven weeks of the twelve-week semester on Ulysses alone. Believe me, that wasn't nearly enough time. Yet, the presense of a knowledgeable mentor was invaluable in understanding this wonderful novel.

Stuart is the next best thing to having such a person nearby, but be forewarned--you will still need all of your analytical skills. Ulysses is a complete education, and as such entails a lifetime journey.

I hope there's better out there.......2006-07-06

I am reading Ulysses for the first time, and, yes, this book helps tremendously in understanding Ulysses. I'd be lost without it much of the time. BUT it's not a wonderful book. Gilbert quotes extensively from Ulysses -- for those people who don't actually want to read Ulysses, he says in the intro. -- but doesn't bother to translate quotes that are in French or Latin or Greek. The quotes from Ulysses often aren't introduced or explained well -- there just there. In fact, most quotes, from Joyce or from other sources, aren't well explained -- some chapters seem to have none of his own words, just quote after quote -- and because of that, I certainly wouldn't call this book a "good" text. Certainly, it is useful, and I don't regret the time spent reading it, but I am sure that there are more-accessible studies out there.

ULYSSELESS.......2005-05-04

And I really hate calling it that, since this book, a thick paperback, was obviously carefully and comprehensively written by a man who was deeply immersed in and respectful of his subject. But my verdict stands.

The reason I call book useless is that, believe it or not, it's almost as impenetrable as the text it purports to explain! Perhaps this was because the author, Stuart Gilbert, was actually a friend of Joyce's, and Joyce actually helped him write it. Note also that it was written only 8 years after the publication of "Ulysses" -- in 1930.

As such, it was seminal in laying out a lot of the main themes of the novel (Gilbert's famous "schemata" is still referred to these days). Seminal, yeah -- but the tone, level, and direction of Joyce criticism (not to mention the literary preparation of would-be exegetes of "Ulysses") have undergone much change in the last 75 years, to say the least.

Sound flippant? Well, be aware that, in addition to being completely conversant with all of English and continental literature, Gilbert expects you to be able to negotiate classical Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and German, much as "Ulysses" does. Quotations and allusions in these languages are liberally sprinkled throughout the book -- and the footnotes explaning them contain not translations but even more abstruse glosses!

The whole premise is ridiculous. I can't see who would possibly be helped by this book, despite the fact that nearly all of the various editions of "Ulysses" cite it as helpful secondary reading. For accomplished critics, perhaps. But for the average reader out there, the searingly obviously problem is that anybody in possession of the cultural firepower and reading acumen needed to read this book . . . would have no need of its insights! If you can understand Gilbert, you sure as a shot could understand Joyce without much assistance. Was Gilbert writing to himself?

Yes, best steer thee elsewhere. There's something out there called the "New Bloomsday Book" (careful you don't unnecessarily buy the hardback), which most students these days find far more helpful and more in consonance with their needs and sensibilities.

Of the various kinds of "Cliff's Notes" out there, probably the most useful is the original, the black-and-yellow striped "Cliff's Notes," followed closely by the "ClassicNotes." Avoid the Sparknotes and the Barron's.

A way in to Ulysses .......2005-01-20

Gilbert provides insight into Ulysses which it is extremely doubt the reader can get alone. He provides the overall plan of the work, the diagram of each sentence and how it coordinates with all the categories which Joyce combined in constructing his encyclopediac work. Stuart was at one point close to Joyce and has much of his information from the master himself. I do not know if there is a better guide, but this as the first is a very good one. It helped me understand at least the outline of the work and its basic structure.

An excellent companion piece.......2005-01-11

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This novel is not for the casual reader. This is one of several excellent accompaniments to "Ulysses" and well worth the price and the time to compare against Joyce.

New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses/Keyed to the Corrected Text

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A Great Guide
A Miracle of Literary Criticism.
Highly Recommended (Except maybe if you want to become a Joyce Purist)
Avoid
very useful

New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses/Keyed to the Corrected Text
Harry Blamires
Manufacturer: Routledge Kegan & Paul
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Irish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0415007046

Book Description

The New Bloomsday Book is a crystal clear, line by line running commentary on the plot of James Joyce's Ulysses which illuminates many symbolic themes and literary structures along the way.

Since 1966, readers new to James Joyce have depended upon this essential guide which makes this intimidating novel accessible. Designed to help the student and the general reader to find their way quickly about Joyce's formidable novel, The New Bloomsday Book will enable someone approaching Joyce for the first time to reach an understanding of the novel which otherwise might have taken several readings.

"It remains, the only commentary in which paraphrase is largely employed without detriment to one's sense of the interest of the novel." --Books Ireland

To ensure that Blamires' classic work will remain useful to new readers, this third edition contains the page numbering and references to the three most commonly read editions of Ulysses: the Gabler `Corrected Text' (1986) editions, the Oxford University Press `World Classics' (1993), and the Penguin `Twentieth-Century Classics (1992).

From the Preface: " Ulysses must not be made to appear more difficult than it is. Joyce's text is a highly organized one, and it only requires a little attention to the network of thematic linkages which undergirds the work to make the reader feel at home in Joyce's world." --Harry Blamires

Customer Reviews:

A Great Guide.......2007-02-12

I like the Bloomsday guide because it helps the reader understand Ulysses. It is good to see crossreferences and interpretations. He is very strong on religious symbolism, but Blamires helps get through the book Ulysses.

A Miracle of Literary Criticism. .......2007-01-08

This book is an excellent example--if not THE example--of why literary criticism exists; it is a concise but amazing classic. I was first introduced to it in college and today I just read it for the third time. Its pages enhance Ulysses and in no way detract from the art and beauty of the most complex and scholarly book ever published (in my humble opinion). Blamires is a serious man who wastes few words or sentences in his sterling discussion and recapitulation of Joyce's masterpiece. His narrative features extraordinary erudition, yet it is quite readable. Nowadays, most people are not familiar with the intricacies of Latin, Greek, and the symbols of Christianity, but Blamires makes such mysteries obtainable. The effect of his analysis is to magnify both our enjoyment and our education. Literary criticism, in this new millennium, seems to be about everything other than the text with its omnipresent, and opaque, references to the troika of class, gender, and race. Luckily, Blamires is above all forms of trendiness and non-sense. The Bloomsday Book brings us closer to the truths James Joyce meant for us to discover, and there is no better service with which the author could have provided.

Highly Recommended (Except maybe if you want to become a Joyce Purist).......2006-06-20

I took Ulysses as part of a course, and The New Bloomsday Book was a tremendous help in my enjoying Ulysses.

I read up to the Cyclops episode without Blamires, and, though I was basically comprehending the book, I was losing a lot of the significance of what I was reading.

My practice from there on in was to read the episode, read Blamires's guide for that episode, and then read the episode again - a bit tedious, you might think, but Joyce is all in the details and the repeated reading.

There are some arguments against having a guide: clearly, part of the reason for Joyce's style was to disorient the reader, to make the reader work, to make the reader give up the dream of total comprehension, of "licking up the cream of thought", to use the phrase of Joyce's protege, Beckett.

On the other hand, why torture yourself! If you read it concurrently with Ulysses, episode by episode, it really doesn't ruin anything plotwise (there's not much plot to speak of!), but it opens up a the world of significant details that otherwise might have passed you by.

I say Blamires accomplishes what he says he aims to do: to reveal the significance of details of Ulysses' on the first read that would normally only come to be seen on a second or third read through.

Avoid.......2005-06-10

A first reading of Ulysses is much more enjoyable without the blather of Blamires. If you absolutely cannot grasp the intricacies, sybmols, themes, etc. of Ulysses without outside help then read the cliffs notes of sparknotes or if you are devoted then get Gifford's Ulysses annotated. Blamires provides either too much information in some instances or not enough. The book has too much plot transcription and not enough GOOD (and up to date) analysis (he relies on readings of Ulysses by 1940s critics and not upon more recent scholarship and trends). Blamires tells toooooo much in the beginning. He prejudices the reader to think about or know certain things that he or she should only know as they are revealed by the author. For example, Blamires gives a bias to the reader by making him or her believe that Molly has been unfaithful many times before. Yes there is a list of former lovers in Ithaca (I think it's Ithaca) but most scholars believe that Molly's tryst with Blazes is her first. You don't need an "authority" to guide you through one of the greatest novels. Simply pick up Joyce and begin reading. To get the same effect of reading Ulysses with Blamires, just read Ulysses twice--it's much better the second time anyway!
(Another more pragmatic reason for not buying it is that the price of this book is at least double Ulysses--not worth the mostly hum-drum plot summary.)

very useful.......2005-05-12

This isn't exactly a work of criticism, and certainly not a "Cliff notes" guide to Ulysses: it's somewhere in the middle.

It's basically a paraphrase of Joyce's novel, roughly 260 pages, which tells the story of Bloomsday in plain language. So it's basically an understandable version of the novel in straightforward, unclouded prose.

It is not strictly a paraphrase, however, as now and then Blamires will tell you what is supposed to symbolize what. But it certainly doesn't list the characters or themes of "Ulysses" in any organized way, and there is no extended commentary.

Provided you understand this, the book can be immensely useful -- especially on your first reading of "Ulysses."

I should note that those who already have their sea legs with Joyce's book will, for this very reason, find Blamires's effort to be of limited use, for it largely tells a story you already know.

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Very Helpful
Second only to "Ulysses Annotated"
Second only to "Ulysses Annotated"
Indispensible for Joyce scholars
I feel a strong weakness for the book

Allusions in Ulysses: An Annotated List
Weldon Thornton
Manufacturer: University of N. Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807840890

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful.......2004-08-14

For those who want to understand some of the apparent oddities in the text. This book does not tell you what's going on, but clarifies where certain words and phrases come from (music hall songs, philosophy texts, political campaigns, etc.) that a modern reader or even non-scholar would have no idea of. Of all the companion books to Ulysses I'm familiar with this is the most useful for actively reading the pages themselves.

Second only to "Ulysses Annotated".......2001-10-09

I recommend "Ulysses Annotated" before I recommend this one to fans of Joyce's great novel "Ulysses." However, as an aid, this book is highly readable and is less encyclopedic than "Ulysses Annotated," which covers more ground, as is its nature. So, buy "Ulysses," "Ulysses Annotated," and then "Allusions in Ulysses," in that order, and you should be set for life. Long life and success to Joyce and his followers!

Second only to "Ulysses Annotated".......2001-10-09

Indispensible for Joyce scholars.......2001-06-06

Pay no attention to the negative review above. If you are looking for an apparatus to use in reading Ulysses, this book and Harry Blamires' Bloomsday Book are the best available. Neither seeks to use Joyce's text to advance its own agenda, but rather to explicate the text, which is difficult going for a new reader, but worth the effort. Whereas Blamires summarizes each chapter of Joyce in his book, this is a page by page list of Joycean allusions, permitting more back and forth shuttling between the apparatus and Ulysses. If you are looking for a guide for students, I would prefer Blamires for younger undergrads who might not be able to follow what is happening in Joyce without summaries, and this one for more advanced students and scholars.

I feel a strong weakness for the book.......2000-06-03

This book is extremly hard to decipher. I feel the book is patterned after Homer's THE ODYSSEY.

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Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics)
Reasons For Reading This
Looks great on the shelf!
happy bloomsday
Sunken Grey Stunt Of The World

Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics)
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141182806

Customer Reviews:

Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) .......2007-08-09

It's a mistake to call this the greatest English novel of the 20th Century, though it is the greatests work of English literature ever--and probably for eternity. In fact, to limit the effects of this book to English is a mistake; James Joyce reinvented storytelling entirely with this book.

All that stuff they're trying to teach you in English classes about metaphor, foreshadowing, simile, word choice for effect and tone--James Joyce put it all together for us, and it's all here in Ulysses. So it is the greatest work of English Literature ever, because Joyce brought us out of the Stone Age of story telling, and a great leap forward. From the great novel to the Simpsons, to B-movie horror flicks, James Joyce increased the common literary quality of everything written or told in any language, and all in one book.

Mind boggling though how he wrote an unreadable book and yet it had such a wide effect. I can only imagine that it trickled down from the so-literate-we-don't-even-really-speak-English crowd to the common school age writer.

Reasons For Reading This.......2007-07-21

There is an episode of the British TV series "Black Books" (a surreal comedy set in a second hand bookshop) where Manny says to his cruel employer Bernard: "I just sold that customer a copy of "Ulysses", "The Guide to Ulysses" and "A Handbook to the Ulysses Guide". Now surely that deserves a star." This episode is even funnier now that I've read "Ulysses" for myself. Any reader who actually manages to get through "Ulysses" probably deserves a star as well.

I read this book because it was reported to be controversial and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I knew Anthony Burgess (the author of "A Clockwork Orange") was an expert on James Joyce and I've read other books that are written in strange versions of English ("The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgson, "Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban and the aforementioned "A Clockwork Orange"). It was interesting to learn that James Joyce was the writer who invented the lingual style known as "stream of consciousness".

Having already read a Penguin Classics edition of "A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man", I thought I'd give "Ulysses" a shot. The copy of "Ulysses" that I read was a hardcover 1966 edition, published by Bodley Head. At 933 pages, the book posed an additional challenge by having no introduction at the front and no explanatory notes at the back. The plain green cover had no illustration and no blurb. Nevertheless I persevered.

So what is "Ulysses" actually about? The only way a reader can appreciate this book is to have a knowledge of Homer's "Odyssey". That's what "Ulysses" is - a modern retelling of the Odyssey, taking place in Dublin on June 16 1904. There's no doubt that "Ulysses" caused a stir when it was first published (1922). People would have been more easily shocked back then. Even when the film adaptation was shown in New Zealand in the more liberated 1960s the audience was segregated by gender.

If I have piqued a prospective reader's curiosity, all well and good. Although the book weighs 1 kilogram on the scales, "Ulysses" is definitely not light reading. As an experimental work, I would say that "Ulysses" does for literature what "Eraserhead" does for cinema. That's the best comparison I can think of. Read it if you can.

Looks great on the shelf!.......2007-07-10

Of all the editions of Joyce's fattest book available, this is perhaps the best edition. The elegant silver spine shows sophistication at a glance, and the image on the cover is both artistic (black & white photo of a tower) & shows that it is literary (there are words imposed over it). The overall impression that having this book in one's sitting room gives is of intelligence and taste. Bravo!

happy bloomsday.......2007-06-16

this is such a wonderful book writen by the one of the most talented writers to have ever lived. this review, i think, is directed to the people who are interested in reading it...
if you want to read ulysses, don't. instead find out everything you can about it, then read it. no one gets through it the first time grasping what is going on. also, feel free to jump around, the more readable sections include circe(written like a play), ithica (question and answer) and nausica (style overload), and peneolpe is just so beautiful that it's a good place to start also because there's no punctuation it's a good intro in the respect it shows you how you have to work to read the stream of consciouness sections but once you catch on it is a breeze.
the stuart gilbert study is fascinating also and a great help...he knew joyce and translated the book into french, was among the first to identify the major structures and had his ideas confirmed by joyce personally.
you've got to want to read this book, which i think is great, also i feel like regardless of who you are, by the third read it's fairly clear, by the fourth you've got it like understanding people speaking another language and that being understanding not translating in your head. some sections are still difficult; aeolus is boring no matter how many times you read it and oxen in the sun is so packed with slang the action is difficult but the language is entertaining...etc. but a great example of things buried in the book is there is plenty to suggest that in the forementioned oxen in the sun section that bloom unwittingly gives a condom to a man who most likely uses the very same condom to deflower bloom's own daughter...the book is loaded with the stuff.
it helps if you know irish history. don't be afraid to read it out loud, it'll help.
and what else?
those people who say this is unreadable are people who haven't read it.

Sunken Grey Stunt Of The World.......2006-10-29

Let's get one thing straight from the off. James Joyce's 1922 novel "Ulysses" is a work of genius. The question is not to question its genius, but to question what type of genius it represents.

Or the question could be couched thus: Why do you, dear reader, read? Is it for the stories (content), or for the language and artifice put into the narrative (form)? The answer is probably going to be "a bit of both". Well done. That's what I was looking for. Pat on the back and all that. So, with "Ulysses", here's the rub; yes, the use of language, Joyce's coining of new words, the memorable phrases, asides and quips the characters make, all these are dazzling. People interested in language (like Anthony Burgess) adore the book..

However, compare it with another undoubtedly great twentieth century work, published about the same time. Let's go with Proust's "In Search Of lost Time" (proust died the same year as "Ulysses" was published). Whereas Proust basically updates the nineteenth century novel, albeit on a gargantuan scale and with virtuosity, it is indeed true that Joyce creates something new -a clear masterpiece of modernist writing. But after huffing and puffing through 500-odd pages, I find myself thinking "So ****ing what? This is getting extremely boring". Whereas Proust breathed life into his characters, giving them each a totally believable set of character traits, Joyce bleeds it out of them in order to dress his language in ribbons and bows. As a cold exercise in linguistic games it is unsurpassed; as a story and a portrait of everyday life (or a day in the everyday), it leaves me utterly cold. Especially as Joyce intended to express drama precisely through these everyday events, I find this failure particularly damning.

This is the point where champions of the book tend to point out that it is very carefully structured, with each chapter representing a part of the body, for instance. It's true there are very interesting thematic aspects to the book; for example, Joyce's discourse on the division between imperial and non-imperial regimes of power, and how the only valuable works of art philosophy come from outside nationalistic and imperial systems (thus Shakespeare was Irish!) Yet this great point is lost under the welter of verbosity Joyce chooses to heap on.

Overall, this is an ultra-important work not only in literature but in twentieth century art in general. However, its navel-gazing and self-conscious cleverness (although amounting to a genius for language) may also point towards a rejection of this type of art in future.

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Views Various
Scholarly Essays Concerning the James Joyce's Novel Ulysses

James Joyce's Ulysses: Critical Essays

Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520032756

Book Description

This book contains eighteen original essays by leading Joyce scholars on the eighteen separate chapters of Ulysses. It attempts to explore the richness of Joyce's extraordinary novel more fully than could be done by any single scholar. Joyce's habit of using, when writing each chapter in Ulysses, a particular style, tone, point of view, and narrative structure gives each contributor a special set of problems with which to engage, problems which coincide in every case with certain of his special interests. The essays in this volume complement and illuminate one another to provide the most comprehensive account yet published of Joyce's many-sided masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

Views Various.......2007-06-08

I am no Joycean scholar but as "Ulysses" is consistently rated as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century I was determined to get through it and understand it as best I could. This collection of essays I found very helpful and while the authors have way too much time on their hands to be considering Joyce's novel to the depth they do (one of them actually retraced the steps of all the characters in the Wandering Rocks episode to determine whether Joyce's narrative was realistic), I did not find it a difficult read and it was interesting to have a variety of views from different critics in the one volume. I doubt whether I would have made it through "Ulysses" without this by my side, and also "Ulysses Annotated". I think I will leave "Finnegan's Wake" for the next metempsychosis.

Scholarly Essays Concerning the James Joyce's Novel Ulysses .......2007-01-12

These essays are mainly for the very well educated in literature who are unduly interested in Ulysses, and/or doing scholarly research on James Joyce. However, even attempting to read these essays does help one to get more meaning out of Joyce's great novel. These essays are hardly any easier to read than the novel itself, but if you have the intelligence and education to understand and appreciate them, it's certainly worth the effort. The essays cover all the chapters of the novel individually--not the novel as a whole--so if there is one particular chapter you are interested in learning more about, or having trouble understanding, you can find an essay that concentrates only on that particular chapter.

A Companion to James Joyce's Ulysses (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

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The GREAT Professor Margot Norris again provides a great, insightful analysis of James Joyce's opus
Very Wide ranging analysis of Joyce's premier work.
Excellent accompaniment

A Companion to James Joyce's Ulysses (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)
James Joyce , and Margot Norris
Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0312115989

Book Description

This compact, inexpensive companion to Joyce's masterpiece gives students an avenue into the novel as it introduces them to five important contemporary critical approaches.

Customer Reviews:

The GREAT Professor Margot Norris again provides a great, insightful analysis of James Joyce's opus.......2007-05-20

Professor Margot Norris of Irvine has written several very well received analyses of the works of James JOyce and their place in literary and political history, including Suspicious Readings of Joyce's Dubliners, The Decentered Universe of Finnegan's Wake: A Structuralist Analysis, the ahistoricity of which she later repudiates in another commentary, and the iconoclastically revolutionary commentary Joyce's Web: The Social Unraveling of Modernism (Literary Modernism Series). Another of Prof. Norris's landmark studies for any serious student of literature must be her essential Writing War in the Twentieth Century, which, passing through WWI and Hemingway, concludes with press censorship in the Persian Gulf War or Bush War One, as she examines how and why writers have been unable to effectively deal with the question of war in the modern world, including after the Bomb, and how and why writing strategies have been monopolized for the service of war making.

Pardon that brief introduction of Prof. Norris's remarkable work in order to set a context for her editting this current volume of criticism from various methods and perspectives of James Joyce's Ulysses, including her own feminist approach which notwithstanding retains its balance and perspective and appreciation of Joyce's subtle use of irony and subtexts in creating a subversively liberated literature.

Being an over 250 page volume of such varied yet profund literary criticisms, there is a portal here for nearly everyone to enter and feel comfortably challenged to deeper appreciation and understanding. Then, once safely inside this Joycean smorgasbord, you may browse to find absolutely new perspectives for comprehending more fully the gleaming cut gem which is Ulysses, voted the greatest novel of the twentieth century, a mystery of comprehension which only expands and leads on to hunger for more.

Prof. Norris has done here a great yet economical service for any student of James Joyce, both advanced and initiate, rendering what might seem unconnected and even unintelligible logical and clear and joyful. Ulysses after all has some of the most delicious jokes in all of literature, if we only have the ears to hear. The parodistic style of the later episodes in particular are a scream. Norris and company here open our ears and our minds to appreciate gratefully and happily what we are missing.

If you can get only one commentary on Ulysses kindly consider this one as a welcome opening. I have read several and this one seems to me like a great place to start, and to stay, and to read the slippery mysterious novel a million times more, while holding firmly the strong and wise hand of Prof. Norris, as Dante did Virgil, or more properly Beatrice.

Other contributers of note include Derrida on deconstruction, Devlin from a psychoanalytic perspective, and Patrick McGee on ULysses in the light of Marxist ethics.

Highly recommended and I have already ordered a second reading copy, as my first got caught outside last night with me in a heavy nightfall desert hailstorm, as I could not leave home without it, and it got soaked even inside the safety of my knapsack. Very valuable and welcome friend and helpmate in the rocky road of Ulysses. Get one and awaken.

Very Wide ranging analysis of Joyce's premier work........2005-09-13

It is an extremely detailed critique of ''Ulysses'' on many different levels but it also is a compendium of the various critical methods used in modern literatore as a whole.All contributors are obviously experts in their particular areas. The book itself was in excellent condition and despatched promptly.

Excellent accompaniment.......2005-01-11

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This novel is not for the casual reader. This is one of several excellent accompaniments to "Ulysses" and well worth the price and the time to compare against Joyce.

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