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Original poster

Have you read Ulysses?

205 replies

ValentineGreen · 29/05/2023 17:46

Or War & Peace?
I read Ulysses a few years ago but since then I've read a lot about it & now feel like I would like to reread it..

Just wondering if many others have read it?

OP posts:
Original poster
ValentineGreen · 29/05/2023 21:43

Aw that's a pity @MelonsOnSaleAgain
I love Dubliners, in particular The Dead.
Don't let a bad teacher put you off!

OP posts:
MelonsOnSaleAgain · 30/05/2023 06:22

@ValentineGreen i can still here her now. The only themes we were allowed to write about were death, decay, and paralysis. We weren’t allowed to suggest we found anything different in the words at all. It was miserable. I hated those lessons, you weren’t allowed to feel the boom for yourself, I’d have probably done English lot for a degree but for her!

Maybe I should read it again, 25 years on, with a fresh head!!

MelonsOnSaleAgain · 30/05/2023 06:23

Book, not boom, obviously. Oh for an edit button.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
jeffhasgoodhair · 30/05/2023 07:28

I did try but I slipped into a coma.

I always try to finish what I start but this was beyond.

I might try the audiobook one day.

Probably won't!

Original poster
ValentineGreen · 30/05/2023 07:36

That's awful @MelonsOnSaleAgain especially as one of Joyce's main themes was life & hope prevailing. With a heavily dollop of absurdity / humour.
I, too, am interested in re-reading after a 25 year gap & I think that will definitely make a difference to my understanding & appreciation!
I re-read Dubliners last year & loved it.

OP posts:
MaudGonneOutForChips · 30/05/2023 08:44

ValentineGreen · 29/05/2023 18:01

For those who love it - why?
I know that's a huge question but maybe you might be able to explain?

It’s a gorgeous, generous, humane, funny novel (even though Stephen D is often insufferable company - I recommend those who are struggling to skip the beginning and start with ‘Calypso’, the fourth chapter, which is a more accessible bit to start with, and you can circle back to the beginning and catch up with SD once you’ve got your bearings a bit). If you want genuinely dense and demented, try Finnegans Wake.

War and Peace, yes. Moby Dick I kind of like. It’s earlier stuff like Smollett and Richardson I can’t cope with.

MaudGonneOutForChips · 30/05/2023 08:46

PinkLazyApple · 29/05/2023 21:30

I really should read Ulysses as my great-great-grandfather is mentioned in it (name changed as it's outing)

I've read about 1/3 of War and Peace and should go back to it. It's certainly more readable than Ulysses.

Say who, @PinkLazyApple?

Maireas · 30/05/2023 08:48

@ValentineGreen - that's a perfect description of Ulysses!

Fiddlededeefiddlededoh · 30/05/2023 08:51

DH was reading it, a very unlikely Joyce reader, but he really loved it because he is from Dublin so he went on the journey with Daedalus for the day but when I had a go, oh my God, what a drag. I saw Bloom too Joyce was odious in it.

LaGiaconda · 30/05/2023 09:00

Up for the reading group suggested by @ValentineGreen. Anyone else?

Original poster
ValentineGreen · 30/05/2023 09:06

Oh brilliant @LaGiaconda !
This is exciting!
Will we use this thread? I could start another specifically as a reading group.
I've never done anything like this before so if anyone has any suggestions/ experience on the best way to structure it please just say...

OP posts:
meatbaseddessert · 30/05/2023 09:07

Almost everyone I know who has tried to read Ulysses has failed to get past the pages of Latin about a 10th of the way through. Ain't no one got time for that.
The only ones I know who have actually read it are a professor of English, a classics bibliophile and my dad.

Maireas · 30/05/2023 09:14

Well, @meatbaseddessert - meet me, my son and my sister! We all enjoyed it, but I agree it's a very particular book. Not for everyone.
I personally can't get on with Jane Austen and don't know what the fuss is about, but for some people that's heresy!

Jackienory · 30/05/2023 09:15

No, never had the time to waste wading through it.

meatbaseddessert · 30/05/2023 09:18

Maireas · 30/05/2023 09:14

Well, @meatbaseddessert - meet me, my son and my sister! We all enjoyed it, but I agree it's a very particular book. Not for everyone.
I personally can't get on with Jane Austen and don't know what the fuss is about, but for some people that's heresy!

Oh I'm sure you did but hells bells it's HARD work. Unnecessarily so and I'm a Thomas Hardy fan. I just find it interesting how many have tried and failed.

Kudos to anyone who's managed to get through it!

LaGiaconda · 30/05/2023 09:21

One way @ValentineGreen , if there were four or five of us, would be to go offboard and Zoom.

But it might be simpler just to do a Ulysses thread on What We're Reading. Maybe if those of us who are up for it, agree that we'll aim to read so many sections a week. I'll have a look later today and see how it divides up...

MerylSqueak · 30/05/2023 09:22

I want to read Ulysses now!

I love War and Peace but do also feel it would have benefited from a harsh editor.

Maireas · 30/05/2023 09:24

Yes, @meatbaseddessert , my son actually got me into it. He decided to read more and outside of his usual choices. I think we loved it because of the language, the humour and the absurdity. I also think that it possibly helps to have Irish background/heritage. I don't know.
Anyway. We're all different. Like I say, I've never been able to finish Pride and Prejudice, I thought it was a yawn fest.

ArabeI · 30/05/2023 09:29

I read Dubliners as far as Joyce goes. It wasn't really my taste, his style, so I was never inspired to read Ulysses. Though, more recently, I have been tempted to try. I probably will read at some point.

I don't think War and Peace is comparable other than it's also a longer read. I do like Tolstoy, though I like (love) Zola, Trollope and Hardy, of that period, more.

MelonsOnSaleAgain · 30/05/2023 09:30

ValentineGreen · 30/05/2023 07:36

That's awful @MelonsOnSaleAgain especially as one of Joyce's main themes was life & hope prevailing. With a heavily dollop of absurdity / humour.
I, too, am interested in re-reading after a 25 year gap & I think that will definitely make a difference to my understanding & appreciation!
I re-read Dubliners last year & loved it.

Well that’s what I wanted to talk about @ValentineGreen but optimism was denied!

Giggorata · 30/05/2023 09:41

DH was madly keen on James Joyce a while back and we did the full on Dublin pilgrimage. Neither of us could read Finnegans Wake, though, apart from dipping in and out.
I’m not sure I could read and enjoy Ulysses again, but I always loved Molly Bloom.

senua · 30/05/2023 09:45

I have tried Ulysses but couldn't get into it. I have realised since that I don't like those stream-of-consciousness books from that period. It's self-indulgent waffling that is more about the writer than the reader.

I have read The Odyssey and enjoyed that.

Maireas · 30/05/2023 09:58

I disagree that it's "self indulgent waffling". Just a different style. But each to their own - I did describe Austen as a yawn fest, to be fair.

Original poster
ValentineGreen · 30/05/2023 10:06

Thanks @LaGiaconda!
Maybe a way forward would be to start up a reading group and if we have enough interest and we stick with it, it could evolve into a zoom group?

All are welcome!

OP posts:
BaruFisher · 30/05/2023 10:10

I read Dubliners earlier this year and loved it. Currently reading a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and enjoying it so far too. An Irish background or at least a knowledge of Irish history certainly helps with that one.
I would love to read Ulysses but the timing isn’t right for me right now.

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