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Ulysses
I offer the following advice. Read Ulysses while listening to the Donnelly, Healy-Louie narrated audio-book. Other reviewers suggested reading aloud, which is good advice, but this excellent audio version of the book will greatly improve your reading experience and understanding.
Ulysses
I can offer little in the way of literary criticism that has not been expounded by scholars about Joyce's masterpiece. What I can offer is the viewpoint of an 'average' reader.My edition was the 1922 text, and it was prefaced by the original publisher with a simple disclaimer: "The publisher asks the reader's indulgence for typographical errors unavoidable in the exceptional circumstances." And it certainly is understandable and necessary: the text is rife with punctuation, spelling and word issues - but it is nearly impossible to tell which are deliberate and which came courtesy of the type setter.The structure itself is almost more of a literary experiment than a novel. It switches presentations, from interior monologue to grandiose play to question and answers to stream of consciousness. At least that happens in sections, so the reader has some chance of keeping within the structure presented.I read that Joyce wanted someone to be able to recreate Dublin from the text of this book - that's probably a good way to describe the essence of it. While not every street is named, the character of the city through its inhabitants comes through (often more clearly than what the event does that he is writing about).It was a struggle to get through this book on my own, and I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if read as part of a class or discussion group, particularly if there were participants with knowledge of Irish history and specifically Joyce's background. The failings however are more my own versus the text itself.
Ulysses
I'm not sure if I would have been able to get into this book so much if I hadn't been taught by an amazing Joyce scholar in a Ulysses seminar, but please, buy a couple of Ulysses supplements if you are unable to take an accompanying class. It is well worth it. This book has marked my life indelibly.
Ulysses
I feel myself quite inadequate to write even a small review on such a masterpiece. This is a book of astonishing beauty and remarkable insight. I do believe it well worth the time and effort. The last few lines are truly the most extraordinay I have ever read.
Ulysses
I know that I'm being sacrilegious here (especially considering that I live in Dublin, and Joyce is our Patron Saint of Literature and Literary Pub Tours), but how this novel is always ranked among the top of the 'Greatest of the Greatest' lists totally escapes me. I personally don't think that Joyce can lay claim to writing a true literary masterpiece simply because the language is immensely challenging. I strongly suspect that the accolades come in part precisely because of the fact that Ulysses rises far above the language of the less-intellectual novels that grace today's best-seller lists, and there is only a certain breed of reader that will wrestle with such a monster and live to tell about it. Not to down-play the other reviews here (which I think are all valid), but this veneration of Joyce seems to have a slight odor of literary snobishness. I can think of many more modern classics that are written with such clarity that even the less 'intellectual' can grasp the depth of the work...and isn't that truly the hallmark of a premiere author?
Ulysses
Masterly done. One of the greatest novels I have ever read. James Joyce always hides another story, an image that passes us during the first read, that envokes us to read the novel a second time. And as soon as we pick the book up again, just when we thought we knew the allegory, another story surfaces itself from the pages. Stunning. An example of this two-sided method Joyce uses in his story is the first chapter. We see Stephen Dedalus shaving himself while he talks to his friend Buck Mulligan, but after a second read of the chapter we don't see Stephen Dedalus shaving but as a reciever of communion from Buck Mulligan who is actually a Protestant priest that consecrates the host at the beginning of the chapter. Only a master can put two stories in one chapter.