Has anyone actually read Ulysses (the Joyce one)?

[Inextremis]

I've been meaning to read it for years, and I've started - but my lawd, it's hard going! I think I've had to look up at least five words in the dictionary so far, and the Latin is beyond me. Is it worth persevering? I'm finding it difficult to work out exactly what's going on - so far they've left the 'tower' and seen a dead dog at the forty foot - tell me it gets better?

Once for uni.

I joined an online tutorial & joined a group of people reading it, it was led by a staff member from Trinity College Dublin.

The reading group was 2 (sometimes 2.5 hours) each week & we read it over 18 weeks. In between online sessions we read an episode each week in advance so we could discuss it

Apart from night town which we read over 2 weeks as its so Iong.

It was truly a life changing experience for me & i am very very deep down a Joycean rabbit hole ever since.

So much so that I have attended a number of events including Bloomsday in Dublin & The James Joyce Summer School in Trieste - one of the most interesting weeks of my life!

I'm actually doing the online reading course again this year & we're up to Aeolus this week. I have plans to go back to trieste to the summer school again this year too.

Since reading Ulysses I have not read anything else that doesn't relate to it in almost 2 years. I have read MANY books but they all relate to it.

It's taken over my brain like some kind of magic & I have no interest in other books - they're all pretty dull for me by comparison.

Last year I was grappling with the structure & plot etc but this years deep reading is even more pleasurable as I'm able to focus on the language more & im really understanding it though there's stuff to learn each time of course

For me it is simply the best, most intriguing, most relevant book I have ever read.

I am not an academic (& agree with a pp who says any English literature academic who says don't bother reading it is not one I'd have any respect for) & I did not study English at university. I considered it but went a different path in the humanities.

Now that I'm so familiar with joyce's writing (I've read everything & started FW) it never ceases to AMAZE me how derivative so many other books are, how far his influence has spread & how often references to ulysees crop up everywhere from books to films to TV

His achievement was utterly extraordinary

Absolutely not. I've read the entire Odyssey in Greek (degree) but gave up on Ulysses early doors.

it never ceases to AMAZE me how derivative so many other books are
Other books are derivative of Ulysses?
It's not exactly original itself, being a re-telling of the Odyssey.

@senua I apologise & should have used influenced by rather than derivative....but there are many many writers whose work has distinct influence on joyce's innovations in language - Anthony Burgess, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Virginia Wolf (Mrs Dalloway - published after ulysses after she'd read (parts of) it. These are just a few....

I disagree entirely though that Ulysses wa not original despite the parallel to the odyssey

@senua I apologise & should have used influenced by rather than derivative....but there are many many writers whose work has distinct influence on joyce's innovations in language - Anthony Burgess, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Virginia Wolf (Mrs Dalloway - published after ulysses after she'd read (parts of) it. These are just a few....

I disagree entirely though that Ulysses wa not original despite the parallel to the odyssey

@senua I apologise & should have used influenced by rather than derivative....but there are many many writers whose work has distinct influence of joyce's innovations in language - Anthony Burgess, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Virginia Wolf (Mrs Dalloway - published after ulysses after she'd read (parts of) it. These are just a few....

I disagree entirely though that Ulysses was not original despite the parallel to the odyssey

Oops dodgy WiFi here & it posted twice. Sorry!

One apology would have been enough!
Joyce's innovations in language waffle is so not my thing.

Yes, more than once. I love it. My recommendation to anyone who'd like to read it but gets bogged down is to listen to the Jim Norton audiobook. It's really outstanding, he's a great reader with superb insight into the text. And if there's a bit you feel stuck on then the joy of an audiobook is that you can just let it wash over you.

I've given up on Ulyssess after several attempts over the decades, feeling that it was one of those books you ought to read, like it or not. As a classically educated academic type oldie, it sounds as if it should be up my street according to some but sadly no, could not make headway with it and finally decided to give myself a pass on that one.
Can't abide stream of consciousness on the whole, though have made an exception for Iain M Banks' Feersum Endjinn...

I think this is kinda true, in the sense that no one snuggles down with Ulysses and reads it from cover to cover. It’s not like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre (or even Middlemarch). It’s a book you wrestle with, dip into, re-read bits here and skip bits there. Don’t be ashamed of asking for help. Once you have a grip on what’s happening and how to read it parts of Ulysses are as easy as a children’s book. At least two thirds of the novel is very easy once you know what’s going on. And even the tricky chapters are pretty easy if you read a few guides. The bit in the maternity hospital, for example, where Joyce parodies/echoes the canon of British prose, is actually quite enjoyable. It seems incomprehensible gibberish at first glance. Once you know what he’s doing, however, it all becomes clear. The book seems more difficult than it really is. It’s not like trying to read Wittgenstein or Stephen Hawking. In fact, I’d say Ulysses is easier to read than Conrad’s Nostromo.

I haven't read it.
I'm not going to read it.
I'm not going to be apologetic about it.

If I were going to tackle something daunting, I'd go for Proust.

Tell me about it

I read half of Alice in Wonderland last week and nearly passed out through the effort, no way I'm reading Uylsses

@Dappy777 I've read Ulysses cover to cover & loved every minute of it!

It's a very funny book & makes me laugh out loud in places. It also makes me think & think which i absolutely enjoy.

There are many, many people who adore it & read it for pleasure as opposed to some grim endurance test.

If anyone here is interested in giving it a go there are loads of resources both printed & online which can help.

There are also several active Facebook groups where people ask questions or post observations & there's a FW readalong one that I'm following & it's super interesting. I'm not reading it but will start this year so I'm enjoying all the chat about it.

Meant to say I'm on my second reading of ulyssee now in a guided reading group & we're up to lestrygonians now. We will have completed the book by early June in time for bloomsday!

I don’t think that’s in the least true, and I know a lot of Joyce scholars. It’s a perfectly readable novel. Is it possible they thought you were talking about Finnegans Wake, which is definitely not a cover-to-cover read?

This 🤣

I 'studied' it briefly and Uni and have never read it all!

I've read it! I was in my 40s at the time and I read it slowly over a few months, while reading other books in parallel. A lot of it went over my head (I'm not an English lit graduate) but I enjoyed it enough to keep going.

My sister has, I'm surprised she hasn't told you tbh. She speaks about it A LOT.

ETA - She's part of a Joyce group and did study it in college.

I read it, but I wouldn't say it was a pleasure and I did skip some of the descriptions, but I do that in a lot of books.

I read it at uni and it only made sense once I read a kids' guide to it, and then I loved it.

Duh - had already said this upthread. Sorry it appeared in my threads I am on but I forgot I had posted already.

Yes I have. I found if I read quite slowly and ‘experienced’ it like a poem it worked. I’m glad I did it.

I've read it because I had to, but I can't say that I enjoyed it or that I fully understood it.