"Ulysses" is one of the greatest literary works in the English language. In his remarkable tour de force, Joyce catalogues one day - June 16, 1904 - in immense detail as Leopold Bloom wanders through Dublin, talking, observing, musing and always remembering Molly, his passionate, wayward wife. Set in the shadow of Homer's "Odyssey" and internal thoughts, Joyce's famous stream of consciousness give physical reality extra colour and perspective. This long-awaited unabridged recording of James Joyce's "Ulysses" is released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of degree Bloomsday. Regarded by many as the single most important novel of the 20th century, the abridged recording by Norton and Riordan released in the first year of "Naxos AudioBooks" (1994) is a proven bestseller. Now the two return - having recorded most of Joyce's other work - in a newly recorded unabridged production, directed by Joyce expert Roger Marsh.
Ulysses
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Ulysses has been labelled dirty, blasphemous and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it not quite obscene enough to disallow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession". None of these descriptions, 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 its own 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 astonishing 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 could 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 inforgettable Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, loiter, 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 accordion-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 naïve 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'His standing is second to none among writers of our own century. He was witty, difficult, subtle and perhaps the greatest genius among the many who have come from Ireland to bewilder the world with the magic of art.' --Irish Independent
"Ulysses will immortalize its author with the same certainty that "Gargantua" immortalized Rabelais, and "The Brothers Karamazov" immortalized Dostoyevsky.... It comes nearer to being the perfect revelation of a personality than any book in existence."
-"The New York Times"
"To my mind one of the most significant and beautiful books of our time."
-Gilbert Seldes, in "The Nation"
"Talk about understanding "feminine psychology" I have never read anything to surpass it, and I doubt if I have ever read anything to equal it."
-Arnold Bennett
"In the last pages of the book, Joyce soars to such rhapsodies of beauty as have probably never been equaled in English prose fiction."
-Edmund Wilson, in "The New Republic"
"Ulysses will immortalize its author with the same certainty that "Gargantua" immortalized Rabelais, and "The Brothers Karamazov" immortalized Dostoyevsky.... It comes nearer to being the perfect revelation of a personality than any book in existence."
-"The New York Times"
"To my mind one of the most significant and beautiful books of our time."
-Gilbert Seldes, in "The Nation"
"Talk about understanding "feminine psychology" I have never read anything to surpass it, and I doubt if I have ever read anything to equal it."
-Arnold Bennett
"In the last pages of the book, Joyce soars to such rhapsodies of beauty as have probably never been equaled in English prose fiction."
-Edmund Wilson, in "The New Republic"
"From the Hardcover edition." --Edmund Wilson, in "The New Republic"
"From the Hardcover edition."
The unabridged audiobook of Ulysses is atmospherically produced: it begins with waves and soft piano. Then comes the honey-warm voice of Jim Norton: Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather . . . I was hooked --Christina Hardyment, The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 91 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So much has been written about this book in the past eighty years that its reputation alone is enough to dissuade some readers. I think that the reviews printed here reflect the balance of opinion about it, both why it is so revered and why some describe it as being unreadable. For what it is worth, 'Ulysses' is, for me, one of the most sublime monuments in world literature, a book unlike any other, and one that deserves a place among the very small number of classics that should be enjoyed for centuries to come. However, I do understand those that have struggled and failed with it.
Firstly, to like this book is not 'pretentious'. It is perhaps my pretension that made me read it and want to understand it to begin with, but certainly not my pretension that made me enjoy it. These are not to be confused. Secondly, it is 'difficult'. If someone tells you otherwise, I would like to know what they are comparing it to. Joyce's language is convoluted and obscure, and often important events are referred to so obliquely that they bypassed me if my attention was wandering. I have read the book twice and realised that I missed much the first time round. However, the rewards for sticking with it are huge. Thirdly, don't let the scholarly dissection of the book put you off. There are a lot of themes underpinning the book, not least the explicit parallels with the 'Odyssey' and the slightly more implicit theme of the relationships between fathers and sons (paralleled by a reference to Hamlet that runs through the book). However, it would be wrong to view 'Ulysses' as some sort of puzzle to be solved. It is, very simply, a book about a man (Bloom/Daedalus/Joyce) and about Ireland in 1904. For all its scholarly overtones it is about a day in the life of an everyman. He isn't a hero, he doesn't save the world or fight the bad guy and, paradoxically, this should make it more, not less, accessible to most readers. If you are able to overcome the complex structure (which becomes one of the book's joys, honest) and lack of plot then the odyssey through a single day and a single language, and a single city becomes the most incredible journey in literature. I have read it twice, and both times I was unable to out the book out of my head for several days after I had out it down. It felt more like having an important life moment than simply reading a book. I read a lot, but only a couple of books make me feel this way, and this is one. If this (admittedly pretentious sounding) review doesn't put you off, then please make the effort to read this book. It really is worth it.
Firstly, to like this book is not 'pretentious'. It is perhaps my pretension that made me read it and want to understand it to begin with, but certainly not my pretension that made me enjoy it. These are not to be confused. Secondly, it is 'difficult'. If someone tells you otherwise, I would like to know what they are comparing it to. Joyce's language is convoluted and obscure, and often important events are referred to so obliquely that they bypassed me if my attention was wandering. I have read the book twice and realised that I missed much the first time round. However, the rewards for sticking with it are huge. Thirdly, don't let the scholarly dissection of the book put you off. There are a lot of themes underpinning the book, not least the explicit parallels with the 'Odyssey' and the slightly more implicit theme of the relationships between fathers and sons (paralleled by a reference to Hamlet that runs through the book). However, it would be wrong to view 'Ulysses' as some sort of puzzle to be solved. It is, very simply, a book about a man (Bloom/Daedalus/Joyce) and about Ireland in 1904. For all its scholarly overtones it is about a day in the life of an everyman. He isn't a hero, he doesn't save the world or fight the bad guy and, paradoxically, this should make it more, not less, accessible to most readers. If you are able to overcome the complex structure (which becomes one of the book's joys, honest) and lack of plot then the odyssey through a single day and a single language, and a single city becomes the most incredible journey in literature. I have read it twice, and both times I was unable to out the book out of my head for several days after I had out it down. It felt more like having an important life moment than simply reading a book. I read a lot, but only a couple of books make me feel this way, and this is one. If this (admittedly pretentious sounding) review doesn't put you off, then please make the effort to read this book. It really is worth it.
65 of 70 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Nearly everybody knows about Joyce's extravagant depiction of one day in early 20th century Dublin, and almost nobody has actually read it (unless forced to do so at school).
The length of the book, the legendary "difficulty" of the English, even the lack of punctuation, all serve to make most potential readers queasy. This perception is enhanced by the enormous volume of secondary writing on the book and Joyce himself. Everything about the text seems to be a license for academics to be pretentious and superiour. Read Ulysses for pleasure? Are you mad? Have you been down the pub with Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus?
As far as I am aware, I am neither mad nor drunk, but I do recommend holding one's literary breath and plunging into this masterpiece.
This book is truly an extraordinary novel. Joyce is a master at depicting and analysing mankind. His ability to describe human emotions on both a concious and sub-concious level is amazing. I am not saying it is easy. To be honest, there are large parts of the book that even after re-reading are way over my head, but too many believe that the book is beyond them. One should not focus on the bad, but the good, and the overall effect of the novel is nothing short of awesome.
So go on, ignore the stigma and the prejudice.
Read Ulysses, for fun.
51 of 56 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I'm just completing a re-reading of Ulysses twenty years after reading it as a student, and I'm amazed at how much I'm enjoying it. Yes, it's difficult and packed with allusions to literature, religion and philosophy that I've no idea about. But the sheer poetry of the writing, the humour and the inclusive passion for experience and existence, thought and emotion, have carried me over the difficult passages. 80 years after it was written there's still nothing to compare with Ulysses in its daring, scope and formal experimentation. If you want to understand the modern novel at all, start here.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
An impractical annotated edition
First of all, it is a shame that the incompetence of Amazon's reviews team puts in the same place reviews of different editions of this book. Read more
Published 4 hours ago by lucas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stream of Consciousness
It's difficult to compile a rating because any opinion of the book is probably more subjective than usual. It's not an easy or even enjoyable read. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Ronald S. Atkinson
1.0 out of 5 stars
Best novel of the 20th Century?
Best novel of the 20th Century?
I found it virtually unreadable - perhaps my brain is lacking - or just perhaps, it's reputation has been derived from literary snobs.
I found it virtually unreadable - perhaps my brain is lacking - or just perhaps, it's reputation has been derived from literary snobs.
Published 19 days ago by Neil Davidson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Reading
Anyone who hasn't read Joyce should do so at once. Glorious reading, wonderful, evocative vocabulary and the smell of Ireland in one's nostrils
Published 25 days ago by susan
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lot of fun
This book is a riot of humour, erudition and sheer fun. Yes it helps (a lot) to keep an explanatory text handy but why is that such a problem? Read more
Published 29 days ago by Friend of Dorothy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Give me a chance!
Not yet read it so cannot comment, When I have I may comment. This minimum requirement of words is ridiculous. Somew people can write what they mean in a lot fewer words.
Published 1 month ago by BillC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome
This product was bought on Amazon books for my kindle. It came instantly which was what I expected and was a very interesting read. Definately worth its weight in gold
Published 1 month ago by Michael Kozlowski
5.0 out of 5 stars
A momentous edition
I have been reading Ulysses now for the best part of 40 years and have a number of editions on my bookshelf from the two volume Odyssey Press edition (2nd edition 1933) to this... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard W. Cowdell
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Greatest Book Hangover
Don't read this book. Not because it's bad. Far from it. Don't read it because it is far, far too good. Read more
Published 2 months ago by cyanide_christ
5.0 out of 5 stars
Last a Man a Lifetime
Few books have provoked as much balderdash as this marvellous account of a day's drinking and self-pleasuring in Dublin. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mike Collins
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