Ulysses

[cathalmc]

Has anyone ever tried it? And finished it?

I'm on my second attempt and doing so much better after stumbling upon these fab resources online:

1) a truly superb audiobook with a range of actors performing the various roles:

http://archive.org/details/Ulysses-Audiobook

2) a very useful annotated and colour-coded text:

http://www.columbia.edu/~fms5/ulys.htm

I'm currently up to chapter 11, and I will finish it ... And then probably go right back and do it all again.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I finished it. I found after the first 100-odd pages it was easier to dig.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by cathalmc

Has anyone ever tried it?

Me.

Originally Posted by cathalmc

And finished it?

Not me.

Seriously, I found it very hard-going, and gave up quite early.

But don't let that put you off.

Mike

[fantasyfan]

I finished it and I would agree with HomeInMyShoes. The idea of finding and using the additional resources is excellent. I wish I had had those when I first read it.

[icallaci]

Ugh. The book as a whole has been impossible for me to slog through, but I do so love the end that every once in a while I go back and re-read just the last 5 pages.

[Fat Abe]

I find reading out of order, and based on my mood for the week, the only logical way to approach the book. I never met a woman like Molly Bloom until I met my wife. She's a lass, lassie, and lassoer. The complexity of the book did not dissuade me. Why should a novel be easy to comprehend or geared toward the masses? Others might prefer reading Janet Evanovich or Frank Herbert for an accessible plot, but not I. If you've gone through many years of schooling, the name Eumaeus should not be unfamiliar to you. Is that why people are so upset by Joyce? Do they think he is writing over their heads? Even if he were, who the blarney cares?

[morriss003]

No,just the sex parts.

[barutanseijin]

I read it all, from Stately plump Buck Mulligan to yes I said yes I will Yes., dutifully looking up all the allusions. Having done it that way once, i'd recomend just blasting through. The language is more enjoyable that way.

[hidari]

I think I will blast through it the first time. Will try to read it twice..but first time just for fun. Did that before with many a heavy book. It is on my list this year. Will also listen to it. Thanks for the links above OP. Here is a good summary of the story:

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_gui...e/ulysses.html

Originally Posted by barutanseijin

I read it all, from Stately plump Buck Mulligan to yes I said yes I will Yes., dutifully looking up all the allusions. Having done it that way once, i'd recomend just blasting through. The language is more enjoyable that way.

[usuallee]

Tried it. Gave up after a couple pages. Incomprehensibility should not be confused with genius, just my opinion. But hey, it has endured for this long, so there must be something about it that speaks to people.

I do suspect some people that have read Ulysses, or at any rate those who claim to have read and enjoyed it, just want to seem smarter than everyone else. No one here at the MR forum, obviously. Certainly none of the matter-of-fact comments so far reek of the pretension I've smelt in other discussions of this book.

That last comment seems sarcastic, even to me, but I swear it's completely sincere! I even may consider getting those supplemental materials mentioned and digging in. Probably not until I retire though. I need to read War & Peace, Don Quixote, and The Count of Monte Cristo before I think of tackling Ulysses!

[hidari]

sarky, serious, and fun...... should have been in a better mood. Anyways. I added the Cliff notes to help those people....like me that have trouble just reading it on the first go....

[hidari]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prosp...joyces-ulysses

[caleb72]

I do think I should read this book at some stage, although that won't be this year. Just scheduled a Dostoyevsky tome and I think that will do for big classics this year.

[LovesMacs]

I tried to read this years ago. I didn't get very far.

I now have an annotated Oxford World's Classics edition that I plan to read in the indeterminate future. Ulysses is a book that I think I should read but there are so many other books that are easier and more enjoyable. YMMV.

[Pulpmeister]

Never read it. But a few years ago I visited Dublin, and had hell's own time getting accommodation--it was Bloomsday, and Dublin was booked pretty near solid with Ulysses fans.

So a lot of people obviously dig Ulysses.

Not, I have to say, me.

But I'm no great fan of Modernism and Modernists, of which Joyce was an outstanding example. I wouldn't even begin Finnegans Wake. (Note: no apostrophe)