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Ulysses
 

Ulysses

by James Joyce

Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it sufficiently unobscene to allow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession." None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this... (read more)

Top tags: fiction,  literature,  classic,  irish,  ireland (all tags)

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Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
OneGoodBumblebee
  • Rated 5 stars

“Like art, this book is best when you don't try to "get it" but just let it be. I love this book mostly because of the way it's written rather than what the story is about. It's really quite genius and stands alone, following it's own formula. Nothing compares, really...and that in itself says everything.”

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Didn’t Like It

Doug F
  • Rated 1 stars

“One of the most awful books I have ever read. Molly's closing soliloquy is well rendered and there are some interesting turns of phrase in the first half of the book, but overall it is an enormously painful read that offers no payback to the reader for the effort. How in the world did this ever come to be considered a work of genius?”

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Community:
  • Rated 4.158837 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.145833 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • Brian Denton

    brian denton said:

    “I really wanted to give this book a good review so I could look smart and all, but I just can't do it. This book will appeal to the insecure intellectual type who likes to reference a century old literary gimmick called stream of consciousness, while mispronouncing didacticism and voting Socialist.
    There is just too much verbiage in this book. Too many adverbs. At one point in the first chapter Joyce writes of a character: "He had spoken himself into boldness." Well, Mr. Joyce, it seems you have written yourself into boldness. The author also writes that "history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." Reading your book was a nightmare from which I am relieved to have finally awaken.
    One of the main characters, Stephan Dedalus, is a wannabe writer struggling in Dublin. In Chapter Three of the novel we find that Stephan once had great literary ambitions but has been beaten down to a two-bit teacher in a Dublin school. If we read Stephan Dedalus autobiographically, then we see that perhaps Stephan's (Joyce's) fall from grace as a proud poet to a defeated teacher manifests itself in Joyce having to write such an elaborate, intellectual and difficult book.

    The book is not a total loss, however. There are some pretty funny puns and the final chapter is really great, though it is a forty odd page sentence. Chapter Six is a terrifically funny chapter. With that said, after reading this novel I am at a loss as to why it constantly tops the lists of the greatest modern novels of all time. Once again intellectuals prove that you can be absolutely brilliant and have no idea what's going on.

    Best passages:

    "Darkness is in our souls do you not think? Flutier. Our souls, shamewounded by our sins, cling to us yet more, a woman to her lover clinging, the more the more."

    "Refuse christian burial. They used to drive a stake of wood through his heart in the grave. As if it wasn't broken already."
    -on suicide cases

    "That last day idea. Knocking them all up out of their graves. Come forth, Lazarus! And he came fifth and lost the job."
    -a jew, Mr. Leopold Bloom, trying to make sense of Catholic Ireland and its theology.

    "We are praying now for the repose of his soul. Hoping your well and not in hell."
    -Mr. Bloom on trying to make sense of praying for the departed.

    I will leave with a warning about this book. The quote comes from chapter seven. I think we should keep it in mind before lavishing unwarranted praise on the novel:

    "We musn't be led away by words, by sounds of words."”

    posted Wednesday, June 11 2008 ( | view 2 replies )
  • Zero

    zero said:

    “If you say so: came across as a slighting comment, but I can overlook that.

    I wasn't actually accusing you of being an academic; I honestly believe Joyce's intention was to write a book exclusively for the University crowd (a sucessful attempt to establish his legacy in literary history.) It's not an accident that Ulysses is the only book I know of where the first thing people direct you to do is take a college course in order to understand it.

    Do you really have that hard of a time seeing how somebody wouldn't enjoy the novel? Even beyond all the obfuscation, is the story really that profound? I think Joyce is just a short story writer who fell back on his (considerable) literary talents to disguise the fact he couldn't develop a novel length narrative. In that sense I find the novel a little desperate. As an experimental work it's bound to fail, and does so, frequently: the novel as a whole remains up for debate (in my opinion at least.) As I said earlier, I found the saving grace in the closing soliloquy.

    You're in better company than I in championing it, but I don't think my questioning the novels readablity has that much to do with my ability to understand it.

    **apparently you "previously rated this books 2 stars" so you can't disagree with me that much**”

    posted Saturday, May 10 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • Zero

    zero said:

    “I'm a bit shocked by the absence of nay-sayers, considering what a painful read the book is. Although there are indeed three or four superb chapters in the book, had it not been for Molly's amazing closing soliloquy, I would have felt very justified in burning it. I do wish it had been his last work though :D”

    posted Friday, May 9 2008 ( | view 4 replies )
  • Bob R

    bob r said:

    “The Teaching Company lectures are mentioned below, and I highly recommend listening to those in conjunction with your read. A few essentials when approaching this book:
    1. Know at least the plotline and characters of the Odyssey, and read Ulysses along with a guide that will help you to identify the allusions to Homer. For instance, Bloom's wife is named Molly, which is an allusion to the herb/drug that Odysseus was advised to use by Hermes, in order to stave off the effects of Circe's potion. There are many such allusions throughout the book, in addition to the obvious connections between the characters and chapter titles.

    2. Have some familiarity with Shakespeare's Hamlet. The two main characters are Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. They correspond at times, typologically, to Hamlet and his father, and to Shakespeare himself and his own son. In addition to the Odysseus/Telemachus allusions, Joyce plays on the relationship between the Ghost of Hamlet's Father and Hamlet, and also on the relationship between Shakespeare as author writing a story about himself and his own son, wherein he is the ghost and his son is Hamlet. All of this teases out Joyce's fascinating exploration of what 'art' and authorship really are, as he writes a story in which he is both Father and Son (Bloom and Stephen).

    3. Have a guide handy that will give you insight into the city of Dublin, a historical one especially. A bit of insight into Irish history is also essential. Joyce incarnates the Dublin of his era in the novel, and he's intensely political, so you might be lost without some help in this area. Many of the landmarks are still around, so it makes for a better read if you can see the places described in the book.

    4. If you haven't been raised in the church, it's best to brush up on your Catholic theology. In addition to the Father/Son allusions mentioned above, Joyce plays with the Christian trinitarian doctrine in which the father and son are consubstantial. I particularly love the irony achieved near the end of the book as Stephen and Bloom, after a night of drinking, both take a piss outside of Bloom's house and their 'streams' are joined for a moment. This is the brilliance of the book - it is a crass, bawdy, at times scandalous novel that also achieves the greatest depth of insight into humanity and philosophy, as well as the highest heights of passion, emotion, patriotism, and pride in one's heritage.

    So, to read effectively, have your Homer, your Bible, your Shakespeare, and your map of Dublin handy. It's worth every moment, even if you find yourself reading the other books just to understand what Joyce is saying. (Oh, and you might want to know a bit about Aristotle as well. And some Greek and some Latin.)

    And the Teaching Company lectures, as usual, are a great help.”

    posted Tuesday, April 8 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • brett h

    brett h said:

    “Brilliant. I agree completely with Mike W that one must approach it with a sense of humor and humility. The language is superb, and its satirical moments are unsurpassed. And yes, occasionally steamy. Like many, I've been reading it since early 2004, and it remains my kilimanjaro (Finnegan's Wake is of course everest). I read a chunk, put it down for a few months, come back to it, and so on, and each time, I'm blown away. ”

    posted Sunday, January 6 2008
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