Ulysses
Written by James Joyce
Narrated by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan
4/5
()
About this audiobook
James Joyce
James Joyce (1882–1941) is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the twentieth century. After graduating from University College Dublin, Joyce went to Paris. During World War One, Joyce and Barnacle, and their two children, Giorgio and Lucia, moved to Zurich where Joyce began Ulysses. He returned to Paris for two decades, and his reputation as an avant-garde writer grew. Joyce’s works include the short story collection Dubliners (1914); novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939); two poetry collections Chamber Music (1907) and Pomes Penyeach (1927); and one play, Exiles (1918). Every year on 16 June, Joyceans across the globe celebrate Bloomsday, the day on which the action of Ulysses took place, proving Joyce’s importance to literature.
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Reviews for Ulysses
166 ratings119 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oh, that, "apathy of the stars." I am wistful and amazed.
P.S. I have since read texts by Julian Rios and Enrique Vila-Matas who devoted novelistic approaches to Ulysses that ultimately steer the reader back to Bloom and Dedalus. I know of no other groundswell that continues to percolate and excite. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Utterly perfect.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was able to knock this out in about 5 weeks, on my first try. I used an old copy of A Reader's Guide to James Joyce by Wm Tyndall for reference, along w Sparknotes. If I could only have one book on a deserted island, this would prob be it.Still quite confused by the whole book. Each chapter having a different writing style is a bit unsettling. It is imperative to read it until the end, because the last two chapters really give you perspective. I read most of it on a Kindle, and kept pace in a Gabler edition.My favorite character was Bloom. What a whack job, what a silly man. Stephen didn't do much for me. Have to process the story a bit more, because it was intense. JJ makes up some crazy/funny words.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A brilliant book to read and reread, but not a book to love with the heart, more with the brains. Great variety in styles, themes, some experiments are a succes, others not. This is not about Dublin on 1 day, by 1 person, no, on the contrary, the multiple points of view are essential! It's kind of cubustic view on reality. A few of the topics Joyce touches: what is truth, what is reality? How can you know reality? And how, as a human, can you cope with this reality?
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Cacotechnous humbuggery.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WOW!Nuff said.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Impenetrable
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finest production of an audiobook I've yet heard. Having an actress read for Molly was a beautiful touch; the musical interludes were likewise welcome. And the pace, clarity, and passion of the main reader brought the production to a supreme level. Of course, it helps that this is one of the best English-language novels yet written.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Holy Crap! What a not good book. This was the latest "on the can" book. I read this a page at a time. I am planning on googling its meaning and purpose. But what I did see in this book was the makings of a classic novel. If Joyce wouldn't have been so lazy and used these characters he developed in a plot of some kind. Still, there were flashes of brilliance.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Well, I tried but I have to declare that I am abandoning my attempt to read Ulysses. I gave it a good go, 200 pages (well over my usual 100 page limit), but I've come to realise that I JUST DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS. Reading it has become a chore, and reading should NEVER be a chore. Maybe the mistake I've made has been to read the thing while sober,because it dawned on me that the whole thing is like the ramblings of a drunk in a bar. (Given the legends surrounding Joyce and his penchant for booze it's not a huge leap to suggest that that is exactly what this book is.) Anyway, while on the one hand I feel a certain degree of failure at not being able to see this thing through, there is also the relief in knowing that I don't have to read it ANYMORE.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I haven't read this since college, more than 50 years ago. I remember the beginning and the end and not much in between. Difficult reading, but worth it. I read the book due to Kevin Birmingham's book on the publication history of Ulysses.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5After having tried multiple times to read this book I decided to look at the reviews. I knew the book to be a masterpiece by repute and added it to my collection expecting to enjoy it. I've tried but I cannot see for a moment why this book has such a reputation. Having now read several reviews I see that I am hardly alone in the determination that this book is as useful as a paper-weight. Going to move on to something else. For those who chose to attempt it, good luck.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is hell on Earth. I can't even rate it because I had zero desire to read it, which made it a downright torturous experience. I read it for a class with my trusty Ulysses reader in tow, and would not have survived otherwise. Who are you lunatics who enjoyed this?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is this the best book ever written in English? Maybe not, but it does have a freshness and a sense of daring after all this time. Spending so much time seeing the world through the eyes and other senses of the characters is something only a few authors could pull off, and the places where this works here are dazzling.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This novel (odyssey in fact) needs to be read with good notations and a focused mind, but is fulfilling and wonderful! I would recommend it a thousand times over! There are passages that I have laughed at and there are passages that I have skipped, but overall...there are no words to describe Ireland's 20th century epic!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A stunning book. I've talked with several readers who got stunned by the time they reached chapter 4 and quit. Most would-be readers I've talked to are stunned by its reputation and never even try. I've talked to several academic readers who take Ulysses oh so seriously--some of them had been knocked into a corner professionally and can't get out. I read it and was stunned silly.
I believe the book is a an immensely intelligent set of parodies within an even more staggeringly conceived parody. Ulysses isn't a retelling of the Odyssey, it's a magnificently upside-down parody of the poem. Leopold Bloom isn't a heroic wanderer, trying to get home and take his rightful place--much the opposite; Stephan Dedalus, unlike Telemachus, wants to avoid finding a father and certainly doesn't want to be like Bloom; and Molly Bloom/Penelope sure hasn't been waiting patiently or cunningly for her husband to return.
Within the larger parody, each of the chapters is a parody of some writing style or publishing genre. Sometimes I was entertained and mentally exercised, sometimes I was bored, and sometimes I had no idea what was going on and had to go to the academics for help.
Re-reading Ulysses must be very rewarding, but right now I've decided to settle for smaller rewards elsewhere. I'm wondering, though, if I'll ever be satisfied with any book in which the characters are less intimately drawn. It's a world I might be compelled to come back to because all other book worlds might seem sketchy, thin, and dull in comparison. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Yes. 'Unreadable' comes to mind. But I was listening to it on audio and I -still- couldn't stand it. I like to think I'm cosmopolitan in my reading and that I don't dismiss books because they're 'hard'.
But this book seems to be nothing but free association. Definitely there are some beautiful 'word matches' but there is little to nothing else to give it any substance or ... anything.
25% into the book and I know it's a no-go. At least for the near future. Gah!! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I have been listening to Ulysses off and on for 6 months and I must say that I did enjoy it very much. I may not have understood most of what I was reading but I did enjoy the poetry, the music, the monologues and the characters. It was funny, sad, lyrical, crude, sensitive and blunt. It is a novel that should be read many times and hopefully when I read it again, it will make a little more sense to me. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you give it a try.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A good but I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone. A literary work as a triathlon, demands a lot of the reader. At 800 pages plus it takes patience to stick with and then finish this work. At times coarse and at others heavenly lyrical.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I read it. I read the whole thing. Every frickin' word. Do I appreciate some of the inroads he has made for literature? Yes. Do I appreciate his language play and knowledge? Yes. Do I nod knowingly at his allusions and historical awareness? Yes. Do all of these combine to give this book such high praise? NO. It feels like someone you are vaguely acquainted with telling you about their dreamscape. Save your time and select a different classic into which to delve.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Three stars. I can't help but chuckle while clicking on the respective star, as it seems such an utterly absurd rating for a book that is really anything but mediocre.
Truth is: From my small-brained point of view there are brilliant passages and chapters that I devoured (if one can devour in baby-spoon portions, as this is the only way this book can be read I suppose), sometimes poetic, sometimes hilarious, sometimes just mind-bending.
There are other chapters my brain appreciates for the intellectual stunt they are performing but they aren't necessarily a pleasure to read. In fact they are hard, painful labour. And then there are chapters that might have caused irreversible damage to my brain.
To me, this book is the crazy, courageous, very clever and sometimes - yes it has to be said - extremely tiring attempt to turn every piece of dust on the streets of Dublin into a cross reference for the entire cultural history of mankind in general, and that of Ireland in particular while changing literary style chapter by chapter. Chapeau.
I am not sure this book is for reading though. It might be for studying, and one could do so for the rest of a lifetime. One day, when I am old and wise and have gained an unearthly tolerance to 400 out of 1122 pages of complete incomprehensibility I might pick this up again. Maybe sooner. For now I will happily lift the 1785g of German Annotated Ulysses back into it's shelf and watch it from a respectful distance. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I loathe Ulysses the way that most sensible folks loathe the very existence of Bernie Madoff. It's an all encompassing and consuming loathing leaving no room for mercy. In fact, if I were The Blob or a Killer Tomato on the attack, I'd consume every volume of Ulysses extant (and Bernie Madoff) with my acidic, dissolving loathing. I wish the book were still banned and my access to it summarily and arbitrarily denied by Big Brother, so that I wouldn't have wasted my precious, irreplaceable time and energy reading it, is how deep my Ulysses loathing goes. Yes, it's true, reading Ulysses (even just half of this poo poo) feels like being disemboweled (or at least like having bad, painful gas; and that's bad, painful gas when you're stuck inside somewhere with other people and it would be too impolite - even as painful as it is holding it in - to let it rip. Oh yeah?! You think that's tacky and tasteless? Well if the "genius," Joyce, can make fart jokes in Ulysses left and right, why can't anybody else do the same in describing his flatulent, nauseating tome?Worse, reading Ulysses leaves one feeling like they've been had, scammed, rused, abused, conned, pawned, cheated, excreted, duped, nuked, swindled, swizzled, diddled, belittled, hustled, hoaxed, stiffed, tricked, taken to the cleaners or taken for a ride, ripped off royally of everything you've worked hard for your whole life and hold dear. How you like that list, Joyce, you MOTHERF%$#!R?Less painful indeed, having your wisdom teeth extracted with pliers by an orang-utang...and without novocaine, than trying to read Ulysses first page to last.I hated it.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The reader is wonderful comes alive.outstanding performnce top class work
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jim Norton clarified so much of Ulysses for me. What a great reading!
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/56stars? 100? My favorite book? Kinda. The book I've read the most? Definitely. This is a book you can read 10, 20 times and get something new out of it each time. There are dozens of books written about this book, and they add something too, but the thing itself is (really) thoroughly enjoyable. Still shocking in form after all these years, this is as good as a novel can be.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This recording is better than I ever would have imagined. A superb job by the readers.
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well worth wading through, if you have some annotations or at least Cliff's Notes on hand - at the very least to pick up on the references that don't make any sense to anyone who wasn't living in Dublin in 1916. The analogy that Joyce draws between the journeys of Odysseus to a day in the life of one ordinary man is very powerful, even though we work backwards through his life and at the end we probably know more about Leopold Bloom than perhaps any character in any book. The streams of consciousness that comprise most of the book seem appropriate to get a clear feel for Bloom's state of mind, and the play style of the hallucinogenic Circe scene works well. Perhaps the climaxes of the book occur when the ghosts of their dead loved ones visit both Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. But Joyce also drops in what appear to be random styles of writing, particularly in the Cyclops chapter, and the question-answer style of Ithaca is fairly difficult to follow. Does it add to the book? Not that I can see. There are also constant lists of what appear to be nothing in particular; other conspiracy-minded books (Focault's Pendulum, Illuminatus) hint at their respect for Joyce and provide similar lists; coupled with the coded letters that Bloom writes in the book I think it's pretty likely that at least some of the lists contain secret messages. Bloom is clearly a Freemason - I don't see how anyone could say otherwise. I didn't take the trouble to try to translate the messages but it seems a pretty good bet that the key to the code is in the line N. IGS./WI.UU. OX/W. OKS. MH/Y. IM., which is the coded address of the woman to whom Bloom sends letters.The long stream-of-consciousness of Molly Bloom that ends the book is also very telling concerning Bloom; a look at him through the eyes of the person who probably knows him better than anyone else. I'm not sure I find the hints of reconcilation convincing, but I don't see that a divorce or angry recriminations are in the Blooms' future either. And I'd be surprised if our Everyman hero ever has a huge resolution, or third act, an end to his drama, because I think that is precisely what Joyce tries to avoid. His hero will remain ambiguous forever. And in the end, isn't that what we really can expect?
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- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I cannot understand the reader. I wish there were a better rendition.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I signed up for a lecture on how to enjoy reading Ulysses, and eagerly bought the book. I decided to start reading a few pages before the lecture....got to page 60 (of 933) and was notified that the seminar was cancelled! Nonetheless, I decided to proceed without professional help.The novel takes place over a single day as we follow Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dadelus on their meanderings in Dublin. There isn't much plot; the book is a character study of Bloom, modeled after Odysseus, and also an exploration of writing techniques to show how different ways of telling a story change the perspective of the reader and the characters themselves. It was more enjoyable than I'd expected and, several days having passed since I finished it, I am still coming to appreciate aspects of Leopold Bloom's character that I may have missed. Hard to rate....it's a masterpiece of style for sure, but sometimes confusing and so long!
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an experimental novel for it’s time that follows a Dublin school teacher, Stephen Daedalus through the events of June 16th, 1904. It is a pretty ordinary day. The cast of characters is large, with Molly Bloom and her husband Leopold dwelt on quite thoroughly. To sum up this is a major classic of English literature, and quite fun to read. First Published February 2, 1922.inished January 18th, 1971.
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