Joyce was born in Ireland in 1882 and died in 1941. He was never rich, had much trouble with his eyes, his daughter was schizophrenic, and he died young. The only demand that I make of my reader is that they should devote their whole lives to rading my books, he said. They are possibly the richest books since the great economy of Shakespeare, joyce's great influence.
Written in 13 different styles from 13 different points-of-view, with each style masterful, this is some book. Famously structured on Homer's ODYSSEY, it is merely structured on The Odyssey and perhaps has more to do with Hamlet.
This book is not as difficult as some suggest, and it heralds in English, with 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,' the introduction of the interior monologue, the stream-of-consciousness technique. For those unacquainted with these terms, you are exposed to some of the characters' thoughts AS THEY OCCUR to the character, with minimal intrusions from the narrator.
The plot, insofar as there is a plot, occurs on June 16, 1904 and the reader follows around Dublin Leopold Bloom, the main character of the book, and Stephen Dedalus, the main character from Joyce's, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.'
The final chapter, 'Penelope' presents the interior monologue of blooms wife, Molly, which, many have remarked, including Jung (though this is a dubious referent) that it is a fine piece of 'female psychology,' and Jung was not as helpful to Joyce throughout his life as he might have been: Joyce means Freud in German!
This is one of the great books of the twentieth century by the greatest writer of the twentieth century, in 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.
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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...
Advantages: Excellent main character and story, good insights. Disadvantages: The style means that secondary characters are seen from only one man's point of view and end up a little one-dimensional.
DoubleFantasy11 07.02.2006 ·
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