Has anyone on the board finished Joyce's Ulysses ?

bosque

I managed to get 259 pages or so into James Joyce's Ulysses before the stylistic and verbal experimentation began to go over the top, but I slogged on through pages I could only semi-understand before hitting a near brick wall with the 100 page Q & A sequence when Bloom invites a drunk Stephen back to his parlour.  Then the glorious finale of Molly Bloom's interior monologue/stream-of-conciousness made it all seem worthwhile, the finest and funniest writing of the 20th century, like a reward from Joyce to those who managed to get that far.  Anyone else make the effort to get to the end of Ulysses (for pleasure, not part of some academic chore which would kill the book dead IMO) ?

EarthRod

Ploughed my way through Ulysses several years ago and it is not the sort of book I will read for a second time.

With the last bit of the book I had to pencil in the punctuation before reading it! The flow was easier to the eye and it then made more sense.

Much of the word play flew over my head and I admit no attempt was made to look too deeply into the meaning.

All-in-all I thought Ulysses was overly structured, a technical "masterpiece" but with little actual content.

Alan

bosque

That makes two of us who've read it !

Peridot

I gave up on the printed version when I first had a go.

I got the unabridged audio version (all 20 odd CDs of it) for a Christmas present a few years ago and to my shame have not even listened to that. Time to do so I reckon

Audiobooks

Audio is where Ulysses really comes alive. I recently finished listening to Irish National Radio (RTE) dramatised production of the unabridged text. It is absolutely amazing. All characters come to life and as the internal monologue and narration/ dialogue merge, they are clearly differentiated. This was my 9th reading of Joyce's book. I read Ellmann's excellent biography right before embarking on this reading (listening) project which made it a bit easier to understand things:

http://www.rte.ie/readingulysses/1982.html

RTÉ.ie RTÉ Radio 1 "Reading Ulysses"

Ivor the Engine

I'm one of the club, too.  There is a description of a dog on a beach which is absolutely extraordinary.  I have read a few books, and this was one of those rare occassions when something sprang off the page and had a life of it's own.

Will definitely re-read one day.

For those wanting an easier way into Joyce I recommend The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which is the prologue to Ulysees and tells of Stephen's early life.

I would equally avoid Finnegan's Wake.  If you think Ulysees is hard going then FW is doubly so.

Toddyhead

No, one book I couldn't finish and the only one I abandoned half way through.

krish

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