Ulysses (Wordsworth Classics)
Ulysses chronicles the appointments and encounters of the itinerant Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel, with structural correspondences between the characters and experiences of Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, in addition to events and themes of the early 20th-century context of modernism, Dublin, and Ireland's relationship to Britain. The novel is highly allusive and also imitates the styles of different periods of English literature.
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Community Reviews
I'm finished!!!! Oh happy day!!! Done! Done!
Can't say I enjoyed this work of genius, though the ending was lovely, exhilarating, and terribly sad all at the same time.
Can't say I enjoyed this work of genius, though the ending was lovely, exhilarating, and terribly sad all at the same time.
This was really hard work. I felt like I needed to read Ulysses at some point in my life, so the audiobook seemed like an easier way to accomplish this. At thirty hours of listening, however, it still required a good amount of effort. Fortunately, John Lee narrates the book excellently, switching accents and languages seamlessly and this certainly makes consumption easier for the listener.
The fact that there is very little plot makes it difficult. Nevertheless, once you resign yourself to the fact that there is no real story, and most of it is not going to make sense, you can actually start to enjoy it in parts.
Commonly compared to Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses tracks a day in the life of Leopold Bloom set in his beloved city of Dublin in the early 1900s. I am guessing that it amused Joyce to write this humdrum single day in the style of Odysseus’ decade-long epic journey. I have read that Joyce was born in Dublin, but wrote Ulysses while abroad in Trieste, Zurich and Paris, as a sort of love letter to his home town and country.
I wish I had a better knowledge of Irish history, and of the Classics, as I probably would have got a lot more out of it then. The text is funny at times, and poetical at others, but often seems completely disjointed. Perhaps this is all the point of modernism? Unfortunately, without a background in Irish Literature, most understanding was lost on me. After doing a little reading around, it seems that it is pretty common to be confused by Ulysses. In fact, Joyce is famously quoted as hoping that it would “keep the professors busy for centuries”. That makes me feel better!
I did enjoy the lyrical feel to Joyce’s writing. I often felt like I was listening to an epic poem. I also loved how Joyce will occasionally throw in a line from a well-known nursery rhyme for no apparent reason. It was also amusing how, every so often, the prose would turn in to a long list of names, objects, times or dates etc.
Thanks to my ERASMUS year in Italy, where I also made some good Irish friends, I was able to enjoy the wordplay in, and untranslated phrases in, French and Italian, and to smile at the occasional “póg mo thóin”!
Finally, I am really glad that I stuck it out for Molly Bloom’s mammoth inner monologue at the end. It was highly amusing (plus a fantastic performance by narrator, John Lee) and undoubtedly my favourite part of the book. I read online that, until recently, part of this monologue held the record for the longest sentence ever written with 3,687 words!
The fact that there is very little plot makes it difficult. Nevertheless, once you resign yourself to the fact that there is no real story, and most of it is not going to make sense, you can actually start to enjoy it in parts.
Commonly compared to Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses tracks a day in the life of Leopold Bloom set in his beloved city of Dublin in the early 1900s. I am guessing that it amused Joyce to write this humdrum single day in the style of Odysseus’ decade-long epic journey. I have read that Joyce was born in Dublin, but wrote Ulysses while abroad in Trieste, Zurich and Paris, as a sort of love letter to his home town and country.
I wish I had a better knowledge of Irish history, and of the Classics, as I probably would have got a lot more out of it then. The text is funny at times, and poetical at others, but often seems completely disjointed. Perhaps this is all the point of modernism? Unfortunately, without a background in Irish Literature, most understanding was lost on me. After doing a little reading around, it seems that it is pretty common to be confused by Ulysses. In fact, Joyce is famously quoted as hoping that it would “keep the professors busy for centuries”. That makes me feel better!
I did enjoy the lyrical feel to Joyce’s writing. I often felt like I was listening to an epic poem. I also loved how Joyce will occasionally throw in a line from a well-known nursery rhyme for no apparent reason. It was also amusing how, every so often, the prose would turn in to a long list of names, objects, times or dates etc.
Thanks to my ERASMUS year in Italy, where I also made some good Irish friends, I was able to enjoy the wordplay in, and untranslated phrases in, French and Italian, and to smile at the occasional “póg mo thóin”!
Finally, I am really glad that I stuck it out for Molly Bloom’s mammoth inner monologue at the end. It was highly amusing (plus a fantastic performance by narrator, John Lee) and undoubtedly my favourite part of the book. I read online that, until recently, part of this monologue held the record for the longest sentence ever written with 3,687 words!
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