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likecymbeline's review against another edition
I've read it before, but listening to it is a different experience. So fitting that the narrator was John Lee, who also read the version of The Odyssey that I listened to earlier this year. Still not going to remark further on the book because I still don't want to please Joyce in his grave.
andrewaaronson's review against another edition
5.0
Joyce is a little freak who put all of his kinks into this book, but I think his biggest kink is bending and breaking our Good English language. Ulysses is an INSULT to grammar and syntax, just a perverted disgusting disregard for traditional prose. Avoid at ALL COSTS if you can’t bear to see our Proper Lady English treated like a hussy.
(But really a comically rich text that reveals more and more of itself every time you re-visit it. A cosmic framing of ordinary life, fierce in its politics, vast in its influences, but always warm in its humanity. There is no better man to lead us through this epic day than the unconquered hero, Leopold Bloom (Henry Flowers, esq.))
(But really a comically rich text that reveals more and more of itself every time you re-visit it. A cosmic framing of ordinary life, fierce in its politics, vast in its influences, but always warm in its humanity. There is no better man to lead us through this epic day than the unconquered hero, Leopold Bloom (Henry Flowers, esq.))
seventhswan's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Extremely difficult to know how to rate or review this but let the record show that I finished it! Understanding it all a slightly different matter!
On the whole I did genuinely enjoy this story and its characters, even if the vast majority of the wordplay, allusions, and references were lost on me. It was just about possible to parse out a narrative (with the help of Wikipedia!) and knowing in advance some basic Irish history and the general structure of the book did help me have a vague idea of what was going on. I would say that anyone with a decent grasp of English *can* read Ulysses - there are only very small sections in other languages or nonsense-speak - but there were certainly times where I was mechanically reading one word after the other just to get through it, and not properly digesting the meaning of what I was reading.
I've tried to organise my thoughts by section, as this is possibly the longest book I've ever read?
Telemachus: entirely understandable, gave me a false sense of security. Not dissimilar to the opening of any other well-written literary fiction.
Nestor: also fairly understandable, some weird sentiments about Jewish people that were uncomfortable to read.
Proteus: the point at which things first started to get difficult. I don't remember much about what happened but I remember being confused a lot. Think I got Wikipedia out at this point.
Calypso: a bit of a vibe shift but I enjoyed this section, other than the lengthy description of going to the toilet. There are women characters! And a coherent narrative again!
Lotus Eaters, Hades: both intriguing and really got into the descriptions of Dublin as a place. Despite not being entirely flattering, it made me want to go and see it for myself. Also mostly straightforward written English and interesting character backstories.
Aeolus: probably one of my favourite sections - different enough to be interesting without feeling like total nonsense.
Lestrygonians: more descriptions of Dublin as a living city! I liked this part! Also lots of food.
Scylla and Charybdis: not going to lie, I really struggled to follow this. I don't know enough about Shakespeare or his wife to understand it.
Wandering Rocks: not especially interesting to me, but understandable enough.
Sirens, Cyclops: struggled again with both of these, they were just extremely dense and yet somehow devoid of much happening that you could latch onto.
Nausicaa: *weird* in subject matter but I strangely enjoyed the way it was written? Perhaps I was just relieved to actually have characters and events I recognised again
Oxen of the Sun, Circe: the worst parts of the whole book to wade through in my opinion, I was just reading words to get closer to the end. I'm sure some very clever things were going on but they flew directly over my head
Eumaeus: back to prose I could actually read properly! Again, I enjoyed this section, but more from relief at understanding it than anything else.
Ithaca: I liked the question-and-answer layout of this section, less keen on more toilet talk and mathematics.
Penelope: 1000 pages in, we finally get to hear from Molly herself! Although written as extremely (think 20 pages each) long run-on sentences I found this not too bad to read and process, and the ending was satisfying. I don't think I could have dealt with a total non-ending after three months of reading.
Am I glad I read this book? I think I am! The parts that I was able to enjoy really were engaging, interesting, even funny in places. Would I recommend it? Only if you want to say you've read it - read Dubliners instead if you want stories set in Joyce's Ireland, and Didn't Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta if you want chaotic travels across a city and that iconic ending line. Will I read it again? Honestly, probably yes, I think I could work a lot harder on understanding it - but not for several years, I'm back to strictly no-thoughts-head-empty reading for now.
On the whole I did genuinely enjoy this story and its characters, even if the vast majority of the wordplay, allusions, and references were lost on me. It was just about possible to parse out a narrative (with the help of Wikipedia!) and knowing in advance some basic Irish history and the general structure of the book did help me have a vague idea of what was going on. I would say that anyone with a decent grasp of English *can* read Ulysses - there are only very small sections in other languages or nonsense-speak - but there were certainly times where I was mechanically reading one word after the other just to get through it, and not properly digesting the meaning of what I was reading.
I've tried to organise my thoughts by section, as this is possibly the longest book I've ever read?
Telemachus: entirely understandable, gave me a false sense of security. Not dissimilar to the opening of any other well-written literary fiction.
Nestor: also fairly understandable, some weird sentiments about Jewish people that were uncomfortable to read.
Proteus: the point at which things first started to get difficult. I don't remember much about what happened but I remember being confused a lot. Think I got Wikipedia out at this point.
Calypso: a bit of a vibe shift but I enjoyed this section, other than the lengthy description of going to the toilet. There are women characters! And a coherent narrative again!
Lotus Eaters, Hades: both intriguing and really got into the descriptions of Dublin as a place. Despite not being entirely flattering, it made me want to go and see it for myself. Also mostly straightforward written English and interesting character backstories.
Aeolus: probably one of my favourite sections - different enough to be interesting without feeling like total nonsense.
Lestrygonians: more descriptions of Dublin as a living city! I liked this part! Also lots of food.
Scylla and Charybdis: not going to lie, I really struggled to follow this. I don't know enough about Shakespeare or his wife to understand it.
Wandering Rocks: not especially interesting to me, but understandable enough.
Sirens, Cyclops: struggled again with both of these, they were just extremely dense and yet somehow devoid of much happening that you could latch onto.
Nausicaa: *weird* in subject matter but I strangely enjoyed the way it was written? Perhaps I was just relieved to actually have characters and events I recognised again
Oxen of the Sun, Circe: the worst parts of the whole book to wade through in my opinion, I was just reading words to get closer to the end. I'm sure some very clever things were going on but they flew directly over my head
Eumaeus: back to prose I could actually read properly! Again, I enjoyed this section, but more from relief at understanding it than anything else.
Ithaca: I liked the question-and-answer layout of this section, less keen on more toilet talk and mathematics.
Penelope: 1000 pages in, we finally get to hear from Molly herself! Although written as extremely (think 20 pages each) long run-on sentences I found this not too bad to read and process, and the ending was satisfying. I don't think I could have dealt with a total non-ending after three months of reading.
Am I glad I read this book? I think I am! The parts that I was able to enjoy really were engaging, interesting, even funny in places. Would I recommend it? Only if you want to say you've read it - read Dubliners instead if you want stories set in Joyce's Ireland, and Didn't Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta if you want chaotic travels across a city and that iconic ending line. Will I read it again? Honestly, probably yes, I think I could work a lot harder on understanding it - but not for several years, I'm back to strictly no-thoughts-head-empty reading for now.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy
janey's review against another edition
5.0
Well, I certainly didn't come close to understanding all the references and allusions, but I enjoyed this nonetheless. Looking forward to another read with annotations!
caislekyle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
schnauzermum's review against another edition
5.0
Reading Ulysses has been exciting and intriguing in equal measure. It’s about everything: politics, history, religion, gender, literature, language, how to live.
amiboughter's review against another edition
4.0
I let my copy of this book sit on the shelf for a few years, and I'm glad I did. I would have missed a lot of specific mentions of 1920s Ireland. Loads of references to Irish towns, mythology, sport, and history. A lot of absolute nonsense, some funny bits, and brief moments of beautiful prose.
“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”
“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”
thaurisil's review against another edition
3.0
I did it! I finished Ulysses!
Honestly, I don't know how many stars to give this. I'm rating 3 based on the level of enjoyment I got out of it, but if I were to rate it based on brilliance on writing I’d give it 6 out of 5. The problem is, I think how much you enjoy this book depends on how much effort you put into studying the book. I suspect that if I read it slowly, looking up every reference and pondering slowly over the meaning of every word and phrase, and perhaps read up on Irish history beforehand, I'd have given this 5 stars. But as it is, I started off trying really hard to understand everything, then gradually got lazier, and by the end I was getting tired and couldn't wait for each chapter to end. And I still spent almost three months reading this.
The plot is simple. Leopold Bloom wakes up in the morning and realises that his wife, Molly Bloom, is going to be visited by Blazes Boylan at 4pm, a man she is having an affair with. Bloom spends the day roaming around Ireland, attending a funeral, trying to get an advertisement published (he works for an advertising firm), buying soap and a book for Molly, chatting with acquaintances in pubs, and trying and failing to avoid thinking of Molly and Boylan. A younger man, Stephen Dedalus, also wanders around Dublin, crossing paths with Bloom multiple times, and Bloom finally brings him home. Common themes include Irish nationalism, religion and anti-semitism, sex and death. The book sorts of corresponds with Homer's Odyssey, with Bloom representing Odysseus, Stephen representing Telemachus, Molly representing Penelope, and Boylan representing Penelope's suitors.
What makes the book brilliant and difficult is the style of each chapter. Every chapter is written in a different way. There's one that's full of food. There's a few written in stream of consciousness. There's one written Q&A catechism style. My favourite was Episode 11, Sirens, which is written to sound like a piece of music. It uses onomatopoeia and rhythms and plays on the sounds of words, creating a piece of prose that sounds like music. I've never seen anything like it. It's incredible and oh so beautiful. I liked Wandering Rocks too, which has multiple sub-sections, each of which follow a minor character whose paths cross and who reveal what a normal afternoon in Dublin is like.
But there are also chapters where I felt like my brains were being bashed in. Oxen of the Sun, for example, which parodies literary styles from Middle English, to 16th and 17th century English, to 19th century writers. It's difficult to read and I didn't understand many of the references. The one reference I should have understood, the one that parodies Dickens, didn't sound like Dickens' style at all. Two chapters later we get Eumaeus, which is supposed to sound like how Bloom would write – but Bloom cannot write. It's a long-winded, extremely prosaic chapter.
Stephen was a difficult character for me to understand. He has lots of high-flown ideas, many of which I, and the other characters, didn't understand. He seems to be on the autistic spectrum – he's a genius, but he doesn't seem to empathise with the other characters.
Bloom, on the other hand, is very much an everyday man. He eats, he farts, and his thoughts wander in tangents that are natural and often funny. He has a tragic past. His father committed suicide and his son Rudy died at 11 days of life. And on this day, his wife is having an affair (though he's not much better – he has a penpal affair with an unknown female, visits prostitutes and reads pornography), and people ostracise him as he is a Jew and is rumoured to be a freemason. It's a really bad day for Bloom, and I couldn't help rooting for him and his marriage.
My favourite passage of the book is the one where Bloom recounts his proposal to Molly, then in a final devastating line, reflects on how things have changed since then.
There are a few resources I strongly recommend:
* Ulysses Guide, which guides you through each chapter, giving a broad overview and giving just enough information so that you understand the chapter on your first reading without getting bogged down in details
* Shmoop chapter guides, which explain almost every line, are really helpful for those chapters where nothing seems to make sense
* This audiobook (Spotify link here) is absolutely incredible. Lots of Ulysses plays on sounds and you get more out of it if you can hear it, especially in Irish accents
Honestly, I don't know how many stars to give this. I'm rating 3 based on the level of enjoyment I got out of it, but if I were to rate it based on brilliance on writing I’d give it 6 out of 5. The problem is, I think how much you enjoy this book depends on how much effort you put into studying the book. I suspect that if I read it slowly, looking up every reference and pondering slowly over the meaning of every word and phrase, and perhaps read up on Irish history beforehand, I'd have given this 5 stars. But as it is, I started off trying really hard to understand everything, then gradually got lazier, and by the end I was getting tired and couldn't wait for each chapter to end. And I still spent almost three months reading this.
The plot is simple. Leopold Bloom wakes up in the morning and realises that his wife, Molly Bloom, is going to be visited by Blazes Boylan at 4pm, a man she is having an affair with. Bloom spends the day roaming around Ireland, attending a funeral, trying to get an advertisement published (he works for an advertising firm), buying soap and a book for Molly, chatting with acquaintances in pubs, and trying and failing to avoid thinking of Molly and Boylan. A younger man, Stephen Dedalus, also wanders around Dublin, crossing paths with Bloom multiple times, and Bloom finally brings him home. Common themes include Irish nationalism, religion and anti-semitism, sex and death. The book sorts of corresponds with Homer's Odyssey, with Bloom representing Odysseus, Stephen representing Telemachus, Molly representing Penelope, and Boylan representing Penelope's suitors.
What makes the book brilliant and difficult is the style of each chapter. Every chapter is written in a different way. There's one that's full of food. There's a few written in stream of consciousness. There's one written Q&A catechism style. My favourite was Episode 11, Sirens, which is written to sound like a piece of music. It uses onomatopoeia and rhythms and plays on the sounds of words, creating a piece of prose that sounds like music. I've never seen anything like it. It's incredible and oh so beautiful. I liked Wandering Rocks too, which has multiple sub-sections, each of which follow a minor character whose paths cross and who reveal what a normal afternoon in Dublin is like.
But there are also chapters where I felt like my brains were being bashed in. Oxen of the Sun, for example, which parodies literary styles from Middle English, to 16th and 17th century English, to 19th century writers. It's difficult to read and I didn't understand many of the references. The one reference I should have understood, the one that parodies Dickens, didn't sound like Dickens' style at all. Two chapters later we get Eumaeus, which is supposed to sound like how Bloom would write – but Bloom cannot write. It's a long-winded, extremely prosaic chapter.
Stephen was a difficult character for me to understand. He has lots of high-flown ideas, many of which I, and the other characters, didn't understand. He seems to be on the autistic spectrum – he's a genius, but he doesn't seem to empathise with the other characters.
Bloom, on the other hand, is very much an everyday man. He eats, he farts, and his thoughts wander in tangents that are natural and often funny. He has a tragic past. His father committed suicide and his son Rudy died at 11 days of life. And on this day, his wife is having an affair (though he's not much better – he has a penpal affair with an unknown female, visits prostitutes and reads pornography), and people ostracise him as he is a Jew and is rumoured to be a freemason. It's a really bad day for Bloom, and I couldn't help rooting for him and his marriage.
My favourite passage of the book is the one where Bloom recounts his proposal to Molly, then in a final devastating line, reflects on how things have changed since then.
Hidden under wild ferns on Howth below us bay sleeping: sky. No sound. The sky. The bay purple by the Lion's head. Green by Drumleck. Yellowgreen towards Sutton. Fields of undersea, the lines faint brown in grass, buried cities. Pillowed on my coat she had her hair, earwigs in the heather scrub my hand under her nape, you'll toss me all. O wonder! Coolsoft with ointments her hand touched me, caressed: her eyes upon me did not turn away. Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed. Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweet and sour with spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. Young life, her lips that gave me pouting. Soft, warm, sticky gumjelly lips. Flowers her eyes were, take me, willing eyes. Pebbles fell. She lay still. A goat. No-one. High on Ben Howth rhododendrons a nannygoat walking surefooted, dropping currants. Screened under ferns she laughed warmfolded. Wildly I lay on her, kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck beating, woman's breasts full in her blouse of nun's veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued her. She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding she tossed my hair. Kissed, she kissed me.
Me. And me now.
There are a few resources I strongly recommend:
* Ulysses Guide, which guides you through each chapter, giving a broad overview and giving just enough information so that you understand the chapter on your first reading without getting bogged down in details
* Shmoop chapter guides, which explain almost every line, are really helpful for those chapters where nothing seems to make sense
* This audiobook (Spotify link here) is absolutely incredible. Lots of Ulysses plays on sounds and you get more out of it if you can hear it, especially in Irish accents