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1.89k reviews for:
Ulysses: Annotated Edition
Sam Slote, Marc A. Mamigonian, James Joyce, James Joyce
3.64 AVERAGE
1.89k reviews for:
Ulysses: Annotated Edition
Sam Slote, Marc A. Mamigonian, James Joyce, James Joyce
3.64 AVERAGE
Finally done. Thanks be to God (but I love the Circe episode dearly). Review to come.
I've wanted to read this book for a long time. I was intimidated to begin it. The way that Joyce uses free indirect discourse to fully reveal a character opens up the complexities of his characters in a revelatory and immediate way. This effect alone makes the work worth reading. This a long, but worthwhile read. The Gilbert Schema (easily found with a Google search), provided by Joyce to a friend, is essential to understanding the structure and Odyssey allusions. (I wish Joyce had named his chapters accordingly.) An audiobook is helpful to use in addition to the text, for the most difficult chapters. (Some chapters feel like work, and other chapters are a complete joy to read.) After reading this novel I can see the huge shadow it cast. The genesis of many stylistic choices by Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner (among others) are in this book. Some of my favorite chapters were Hades, Scylla and Charybdis, Sirens, Nausicaa, Circe, and Penelope.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really, really enjoyed reading Ulysses. I think my James Joyce class was my favorite English class of all of college. The discussions were awesome, the connections we made were awesome, it was altogether such an amazing time. I do want to read the book again, but I need to spend some time apart from it too.
I felt very connected to the three main characters, and I felt like I could really appreciate them for their positives and negatives. I found the material rewarding, despite the challenge of reading some of the chapters. I even liked Circe, which I was nervous for.
I think my favorite chapter were the three that I had to do extra work for - Nausicaa, Sirens, and Penelope. I really appreciated the appearance of female characters in this chapter, even when I didn't agree with what they were doing.
I have come to really love Stephen and Bloom, and I think that Joyce did such an amazing job making them feel like real characters with real personalities, not flat descriptions of pseudo-human beings.
I would recommend this book for people with a lot of time on their hands that are going through something and want to reflect on their own nature and personal characteristics. I would also recommend it if you are into Irish history.
I felt very connected to the three main characters, and I felt like I could really appreciate them for their positives and negatives. I found the material rewarding, despite the challenge of reading some of the chapters. I even liked Circe, which I was nervous for.
I think my favorite chapter were the three that I had to do extra work for - Nausicaa, Sirens, and Penelope. I really appreciated the appearance of female characters in this chapter, even when I didn't agree with what they were doing.
I have come to really love Stephen and Bloom, and I think that Joyce did such an amazing job making them feel like real characters with real personalities, not flat descriptions of pseudo-human beings.
I would recommend this book for people with a lot of time on their hands that are going through something and want to reflect on their own nature and personal characteristics. I would also recommend it if you are into Irish history.
challenging
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i can see the genius. i really can. i can practically smell it. i just dont like it, like almost at all.
Guys, I really tried. I got about 3/4 of the way through and ended up skimming the rest if I’m being entirely honest. At the end of the day, I want to care about characters or plot. I don’t just want to read a story for the author’s brilliance/madness. I get why some people may be fascinated by that, but it’s not why I read. I wanted to care, but I just truly couldn’t. Life is just too short to read Ulysses.
There is an episode of Friends where Joey uses the thesaurus on every word in a sentence in an attempt to sound smarter, so you know what he was saying, but at the same time, the writing was very nonsensical and overdone. That’s what Ulysses is.
There is an episode of Friends where Joey uses the thesaurus on every word in a sentence in an attempt to sound smarter, so you know what he was saying, but at the same time, the writing was very nonsensical and overdone. That’s what Ulysses is.
Na wenn das mal kein Omen ist. Da will ich nur die shelves bearbeiten und zack, lösche ich alles zu diesem Buch
Took three tries, but this time I read it straight through. It is magnificent. A tour de force. Challenging, difficult and incredible.
I highly recommend accompanying the book with the Great Lectures series, and if you really want a treat, also buy the "whisper sync" version for your Kindle, and read along as it is read to you.
The last chapter is unbelievable, the perfect ending to this extraordinary book. The chapter on child birth is perhaps my favorite: he recreates the pregnancy term, by starting the chapter in Elizabethan English and slowly, gradually advancing to modern English. Brilliant.
All in all, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
I highly recommend accompanying the book with the Great Lectures series, and if you really want a treat, also buy the "whisper sync" version for your Kindle, and read along as it is read to you.
The last chapter is unbelievable, the perfect ending to this extraordinary book. The chapter on child birth is perhaps my favorite: he recreates the pregnancy term, by starting the chapter in Elizabethan English and slowly, gradually advancing to modern English. Brilliant.
All in all, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Read: Chapters 1 ‘Telemachus’, 11 ‘Sirens’, 17 ‘Ithaca’ & 18 ‘Penelope’
I read Ulysses in college as a lark. The book's mood and seeing hung around me like a cloud. The very air of it invaded my thoughts -- expanding them from the inside. I was a biochemistry student at the time, but I began to see and experience other things, other worlds outside as well as worlds inside me.
Recently, on a long drive to help a friend, I listened to it again. It was like a mind blowing drug, a trip through another's brain. More than once, I had to turn it off to focus on driving.
I don't know what it is about this book. All of the criticisms are accurate. It's pretentious. It's boring by today's action standards. It's long, too long. It makes no sense.
To me, it's deeply experiential, and, in that, specifically existential. It has had a huge impact on my life and writing as it focused me on the character's internal experience. It reminds me to slow down, write moment to moment, and feel, just feel, what my character is feeling.
One more thing, I found a set of Joyce's letters in a used bookstore. In the volume written at the time he was writing this book, you will find him experiencing many of the same events, described in clearer language. I saw how he translated experience from exposition to sense experience on the page. Fabulous and fascinating. If you want a companion to this book, get those.
Recently, on a long drive to help a friend, I listened to it again. It was like a mind blowing drug, a trip through another's brain. More than once, I had to turn it off to focus on driving.
I don't know what it is about this book. All of the criticisms are accurate. It's pretentious. It's boring by today's action standards. It's long, too long. It makes no sense.
To me, it's deeply experiential, and, in that, specifically existential. It has had a huge impact on my life and writing as it focused me on the character's internal experience. It reminds me to slow down, write moment to moment, and feel, just feel, what my character is feeling.
One more thing, I found a set of Joyce's letters in a used bookstore. In the volume written at the time he was writing this book, you will find him experiencing many of the same events, described in clearer language. I saw how he translated experience from exposition to sense experience on the page. Fabulous and fascinating. If you want a companion to this book, get those.