Ulysses by James Joyce
For me, James Joyce's Ulysses is not just a novel; it is a complete project. When I first read the book a couple of years ago, I was very apprehensive; I prepared some reference books and articles from the Internet, took a deep breath, and yet was unsure as to whether ... Read review
Based on James Joyce's 1922 masterpiece, Leopold Bloom is Joyce's Jewish protagonist. ... more
Wandering the Dublin streets, he thinks about his dead son, his cuckolding wife, Molly, and his own impotence. During his travels he encounters a one-eyed man who tau...
Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, this book follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen ... more
Daedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. After its first publication in Paris in 1922, it was published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head in 1936.
Ulysses, one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, has had a profound influence ... more
on modern fiction. In a series of episodes covering the course of a single day, 16 June 1904, the novel traces the movements of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through the streets of Dublin. Each episode has its own literary style, and the epic journey of Odysseus is only one of many correspondencies that add layers of meaning to the text. Ulysses has been the subject of controversy since copies of the first English edition were burned by the New York Post Office Authorities. Today critical interest centres on the authority of the text, and this
Advantages: The best reading experience ever Disadvantages: It ends… I will read it again and again and again…
Ulysses by James Joyce
For me, James Joyce's Ulysses is not just a novel; it is a complete project. When I first read the book a couple of years ago, I was very apprehensive; I prepared some reference books and articles from the Internet, took a deep breath, and yet was unsure as to whether I would be able to appreciate such a difficult book properly. The novel has the same structure of The Odyssey, and I honestly don't remember ... ...to take a look at Ulysses for Dummies, which summarizes the books using basic moving pictures <http://home.bway.net/hunger/ch1-ulys.html>. In short, the huge 1040 page novel describes a single day in the life of a young man called Stephen Dedalus, an older man called Leopold Bloom, and ends with the ideas of Bloom's wife, Molly. Well, things are not that simple. Each chapter in Ulysses has a different structure, for instance, one of the chapters ... more
Ulysses by James Joyce
For me, James Joyce's Ulysses is not just a novel; it is a complete project. When I first read the book a couple of years ago, I was very apprehensive; I prepared some reference books and articles from the Internet, took a deep breath, and yet was unsure as to whether I would be able to appreciate such a difficult book properly. The novel has the same structure of The Odyssey, and I honestly don't remember which one of the two I read first, but I don't believe that reading Homer's epic is a prerequisite for reading Joyce's twentieth century epic.
As I mentioned earlier, there are so many guides that can help you read this book, and this is one of the books in which reading a summary won't spoil your enjoyment, but to make things easier and more fun, I advise you to take a look at Ulysses for Dummies, which summarizes the books using basic moving pictures <http://home.bway.net/hunger/ch1-ulys.html>. In short, the huge 1040 page novel describes a single day in the life of a young man called Stephen Dedalus, an older man called Leopold Bloom, and ends with the ideas of Bloom's wife, Molly. Well, things are not that simple. Each chapter in Ulysses has a different structure, for instance, one of the chapters is written in the form of a play with nothing but a dialogue and no narration, another fantastic chapter follows the development of the English language, and the last famous chapter which concentrates on Molly Bloom has no punctuation marks.
The reason why reading a summary of the novel before reading it is not a problem here is because the novel is not about the seemingly trivial incidents that happen in it, replacing thereby the fantastical stories that take place in The Odyssey, but rather about what you detect from them, and how, according to you, the lives of Stephen and Mr. Bloom are related.
I wrote this review merely to encourage those of you who haven't read this spectacular book to read it as soon as possible, or to add it to the list of books you should read before you die. About the reading experience, I say, the beginning of the novel was somewhat mysterious for me, but bit by bit you become accustomed to Joyce's style and reading becomes much easier for you. I definitely advise you to read other simpler books by Joyce, like Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, before reading this one, to know what you should expect from Ulysses, or even to meet Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait.
Surprisingly, there is actually an adaptation of this strange novel that I watched myself, and it is a 1967 film called Ulysses. The black and white film which is directed by Joseph Strick gives a good idea of the novel, and you might be interested in watching it if you were one of the enthusiastic fans of James Joyce, like me. I couldn't find the film on Amazon, but I borrowed it from a public library.
Happy reading!
<<< Price and Book Info >>>
Price: £6.49 from Amazon Paperback: 1040 pages Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (30 Mar 2000) Language English ISBN-10: 0141182806 ISBN-13: 978-0141182803 Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 4.3 cm
Advantages: Among the greatest novels ever written. Disadvantages: You'd be best to take a few maps,
Ulysses is both a start and an end. It is the start of something spectacular, exciting, innovative and revolutionary in the medium of the novel, and yet it is also the end of the novel, for post-Ulysses, there is very little left to be said by way of a series of words arranged in chapters and bound under a common name.
Of all the modern classics, it is perhaps the most daunting. More so even than Proust's In Search Of Lost Time which seems as broad ... ...fragmented, challenging, anti-narratives that followed. Ulysses MEANS something more than can be contained in its pages, and most everyone, certainly at this point in western culture, has some sort of grasp on what that meaning might be, or, at the very least, houses some awareness of the fact that there are a great many people who spend a great deal of their time fretting over every comma, every arcane reference to this or the other Irish King or ...
DavidJay 22.10.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ulysses - James Joyce
Advantages: it is a book of the ages Disadvantages: it costs money to buy!
...my worthless opinion. I can only refer you to the book.
If you enjoy this book, you will love Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'.
If Ulysses is the mind by day, then FW is the mind as it sleeps, so he said. Finnegans Wake is the difficult book of the two. ...
alcidebava 16.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ulysses - James Joyce
Advantages: It's Joyce. Disadvantages: Hard to read, etc.
Yes it's the modernist text. Yes it's difficult to understand. Yes it's the forerunner and influence Eliot said he never had. Yes it's unoriginal - it uses the framework of the Odyssey. Yes its set over a single day. Yes each chapter uses a different technique. Yes it is humourous, yes it is linguistically alive, blazing, and pleasingly filthy in places, no doubt you already know which ones. Yes it is long - nearly 1000 pages. Yes the last chapter ... ...punctuation; this is a woman's thoughts here. Yes it ends with the most affirming word in the English language (Have you guessed it yet?), and makes the meanest subjects the object of art, yes it combines symbolism, realism and le monologue interiur. Yes it influences Burgess, yes it can be seen as one of the greatest works of art of the century, yes it's an adovocate of women's rights...yes yes yes it's all of these things. Buy already ...
azrael 04.10.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ulysses - James Joyce
Advantages: Its amazing and its Joyce... Disadvantages: Its 'difficult'...
...would be difficult to view Ulysses as a 'book'. At around 1000 pages long it is more of a literary and artistic monument than anything else. The work is stunning and encyclopaedic, looking at both the treasure and detritus of human lfe.
Published in 1922, Joyce's 'novel' has a seemingly slim plot. It follows its protagonists through a day in Dublin as their lives interweave and interact. The frame for the novel comes form Homer's Odyssey and each ... ...and he achieved his aim. Ulysses is so wide in its scope and plays so many 'games' with the reader that its links, symbolism and parallels seem to go on forever. We will never detect them all! It uses a multitude of styles, pictorial representations and even creates some new words!
In view of this, it is not a good idea to approach this work as something to be 'understood'. Reading Ulysses needs to be viewed as an experience. It is experimental ...
lizzie_haycocks 24.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ulysses - James Joyce
Advantages: It is a classic Disadvantages: it is difficult
It seems almost like sacrilege to criticise an almost universally acclaimed book, such as this.
Stream of consciousness is a term used to describe this style of writing.
When I began to read this book I was immediately impressed by the effortless juxtaposition of the words used to descibe places and events; it was a joy to read the terms side by side.
Unfortunately the effortlessness begins to pale into disinterest as the lack of story emerges, ... ...minute passes".
Not having studied this at "A" level I am not familiar with the official version of why this book is a classic.
Unless I'm missing something there is little or no story to be discerned.
Having taken the time to finish this weighty volume, I wonder why and apart from the initial joy of reading the alliterative accounts of an anally-retentive auteurs alcoholic ambles across Dublin.
Now apart from the minimal satisfaction to be gained ...
fairenoughclough 30.11.2004
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