Product Description
Autobiographical novel by James Joyce, published serially in The Egoist in 1914-15 and in book form in 1916; considered by many the greatest bildungsroman in the English language. The novel portrays the early years of Stephen Dedalus, who later reappeared as one of the main characters in Joyce's Ulysses (1922). Each of the novel's five sections is written in a third-person voice that reflects the age and emotional state of its protagonist, from the first childhood memories written in simple, childlike language to Stephen's final decision to leave Dublin for Paris to devote his life to art, written in abstruse, Latin-sprinkled, stream-of-consciousness prose. The novel's rich, symbolic language and brilliant use of stream-of-consciousness foreshadowed Joyce's later work. The work is a drastic revision of an earlier version entitled Stephen Hero and is the second part of Joyce's cycle of works chronicling the spiritual history of humans from Adam's Fall through the Redemption. The cycle began with the short-story collection Dubliners (1914) and continued with Ulysses and Finnegans Wake (1939). ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent copy
The copy I bought was in a good shape.
The picturenotes recount a story of its own and are very
comfortable if you wish to great a greater understanding of
Joyce's short stories.

James Joyce's Dubliners
I purchased this collectible edition of Joyce's Dubliners from seller lightjoy.Although the book is a gift for a friend who really loves Joyce's Dubliners, I am extremely satisfied with the quality of the book.It looks brand new, the pictures look amazing, and the annotations are really helpful in understanding references made by Joyce in the book.

A 20th Century Masterpiece
James Joyce's "Dubliners" is a shining example of the beautifully expressive power of the English language.The book offers a compilation of short stories, each as intriguing and captivating as those that precede and follow.

To truly enjoy the remarkable magnificence of this book, it is important to first recognize the three key aspects of each story:symbolism, imagery, and character development.The first of which to be examined is the most vital, as each story of the book is enveloped and completely built upon Joyce's deep and profound symbolism, with each character also defined by the same.

We can first look upon the title character of "Eveline," for whom the lattice-work of a window represents the bars of her prison-cell, and the fading streetlights beyond depict the hope of her life dissipating in the darkness of ever-encroaching night.

Easy to recognize, the symbolism of "Dubliners" is amazingly proficient in its ability to provide a deeper insight and understanding that truly does raise this book above the stature of its otherwise common stories.Joyce's masterful use of this literary technique is then placed within simple linguistic structures that are easily identified, yet powerful and splendidly thought provoking in its very core and concept, as well as by the nature in which it is employed.The careful explication of, and adequate attention give to this symbolism is very relevant, as it is essential in achieving a greater appreciation of each story being told, the characters portrayed within, and of Joyce to entertain with each.

Wild and vivid imagery frames the story through the author's immense, yet extremely enjoyable descriptive nature.A majority of each story's progression takes place between the dialogue, which is sparse to say the least, giving ample opportunity for Joyce's spectacular, though usually dark and gloomy imagery.It is also within this narrative that the characters spring to life.Being depicted as ordinary people suffering internal conflicts, they are tightly bound to the reader through relative and universal experiences.Eloquent and poignant examples of this can be found in the title characters of both "Eveline," and "Araby."

The central characters of "Dubliners," at first glance, appear quite flat, as seen in their dialogue.But upon closer inspection, the depth of Joyce's imaginative narrative bring them round, and fully-developed.Each of these characters, in their own respective way, is brilliantly constructed through elaborate thoughts and feelings, which, ironically, display the faults, failures, and weaknesses that they bring into their personal struggles.This appears to be Joyce's unique and quite genius way of building to climax, in which the audience is forced to believe in the strength and courage of characters of which we already know them to be deficient.It is, therefore, a cleverly devised surprise when they remain weak-willed, and are lead into despair, even though this path has been clearly laid out from beginning to end.Correlations can then be drawn between these characters, and the settings of the stories in which they appear.Being the same throughout, his setting is the Irish city of Dublin, which Joyce goes out of his way to portray as bereft of light, warmth, and color.

Though Joyce's obvious theme and intent was the portrayal of the internal conflicts of common people, this subject does become redundant when replicated throughout all stories of the book, offering the one real drawback of "Dubliners."

Overall, Joyce's simplistic use of language is evocative, as it conveys complex ideas in very simple words, making it an easy read for even the least literary-minded of readers.The thought and story progression is virtually flawless, being laid out in a proper and unmistakeable order that can be widely enjoyed for both its surface-value, and its underlying literary techniques.The philosophical themes are relative to virtually anyone, making this a book well worth spending time on.

The Living Dead
My only complete reading of Dubliners was from this version. What makes Dubliners so amenable to an annotated edition is that it is essentially an immediately accessible work of fiction - Joyce's only (the Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man being slightly trickier). Why are annotations so crucial to this work? The multiple place and character references make up a significant portion of these stories: Without a knowledge of the settings you're left with the virtuoso, stand-alone, psychological complexities of Joyce's style.

For example, Margaret Mary Allicott. Passing reference is made to her in Dubliners; Buck Mulligan refers to her also in Ulysses as "Margaret Mary ANYcock". Without annotations, what can you make of that? Who was she? The annotated Dubliners points out that she was a figure of considerable religious veneration in Dublin at the turn of the century. Icons of her graced many Irish homes. Seeking sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, she would drink only dirty washwater and eat only the pus from her numerous sores. This gives some idea of the crudity of public ideas of morality at the time. The annotation permits you to enjoy not only the bizarre Irish Zeitgeist but also appreciate the Buck's nasty pun. This is just one example of the value of annotations for this work. You can easily imagine that the instances are numerous, and that the pictures included throughout this annotated Dubliners also breathe life into the stories.

Most of all, if you like Joyce's fiction, this is a fun copy. And remember, these stories were originally read by people who *did* understand the numerous references and allusions. My experience of Dubliners is that this is the only truly readable version. Enjoy these heartwarming yarns of a city's moral and psychological twilight: Paralysis, disillusionment, collapse.

Marvelous work.

A great book and wonderful treasure
The voluminous notes gave me a richer understanding of this work. The book is beautfully laid out and much easier to read than other "annotated" books. I wish the author's would tackle ULYSSES next. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Beautiful rendition of Ulysses
James Joyce's 'Ulysses' is a huge book, a leviathan undertaking that could take a working person six months to finish.Here, with the expert and loving attention of Donal Donnelly is outstanding, and it gives this tome the respect it certainly deserves.It's worth your money and your time, and for the 43 hours you'll invest in listening to it your come away wiser and certainly more appreciative of one of the world's finest writers.

Can't Read It, Can't Hear It
Tried many times to read the book, thought maybe this would be better. It isn't. Nice package, though, and it will make a great doorstop.

The most palatable way to read "Ulysses"
If you've ever wanted to join the intrepid few to have done "Ulysses" from cover to cover - but have found the task too forbidding - then this is probably the easiest and most palatable way of accomplishing your wish. The two narrators bring the work to life in a way that the printed work can only hint at; with the aid of their command of a dizzying variety of languages, accents, and dialects, you grasp (fairly often at least) what the flat-looking verbiage of the text only intermittently suggests.

There are, however, inherent problems with a spoken-word reading of this work. The flitting from thought to thought that characterizes much of the text is slowed down and made too deliberate. The stream of consciousness is slowed to a trickle. Eighteen hours is stretched out to forty two in this reading and the sensation of a flurry of impressions that an ideal inner reading might capture (in Heaven?) is missing. In practice, however, only somebody utterly familiar with all the recondite allusions of the text could possibly read it so rapidly and you will probably get through the work more quickly by hearing this version than by reading it silently.

I thought the "Circe" episode was the most compromised in this reading. It seems to go on for ever with the narrator having to announce the identity of the speaker every couple of sentences and the sense of whirling delirium goes missing because it drags so much. I don't know if this problem can be solved but I wonder if an ensemble of voices in this episode might more closely capture its atmosphere. Another gripe is that Donal Donnelly has a tuneless singing voice and the many musical snatches lose their point as a result. Joyce was highly musical but you'd never know it from this audiobook.

But I moan too much. "Ulysses" is highly problematic - I would say self-contradictory - and I can't imagine any version in any medium could possibly elucidate it completely. This version comes relatively close to giving it point and for that I'm grateful. I've finally "done" Ulysses.

The Music of the Language
I would not recommend this audio version as a substitute to the text, but as a very valuable augmentation. To get the most out of the Ulysses experience, one must employ all senses. Joyce's masterpiece is filled with the music of his own unique language. Reading the text without hearing it is tantamount to reading an opera. Hearing Ulysses read aloud by Donal Donnelly is like hearing that same opera performed by Caruso. The Sirens episode, in particular, is incomplete until it is given a voice. The text of Ulysses is frequently challenging as it drifts, without warning, between styles, languages, and points of view, but Donnelly navigates through Joyce's maelstrom with a confident hand firmly on the tiller. I can listen to these discs over and over the way I would my favorite music, and each time I hear something I missed before or make sense out of something that I didn't understand earlier. An audio companion to the text of Ulysses is invaluable, and I very highly recommend this particular version.

A splendid way to embrace James Joyce!
It is said that "Ulysses" is one of those books no one has ever read.Certainly, simply sitting down and trying to read it cold turkey is much too daunting for anyone who is not a literary scholar (and even some of those, too).

The way I did it was to listen to these wonderful CDs while following along word-for-word in the Gabler Edition, published by Vintage, which is the version used by Irish actors Donal Donnelly and Miriam Healy-Louie. (Purists may cavil that this is not the approved edition, but it's one that matches the audiobook.)The reading is very clear and understandable to non-Irish listeners, and journeys through Gaelic, Latin, French, and even a bit of cat language, if I heard right.

Yes, indeed -- one chapter every day or two, followed by an analysis by a professor from one of those CD/DVD college lecture series, and I not only finished the thing but understood it rather well, enjoyed it immensely, gave it as a birthday present to a friend, and now plan to take a second run-through.

I must caution that the book and the audio should be used together, or the reader will get lost in the stream-of-consciousness writing that seems almost schizophrenic.In other words, it's not to be listened to in the gym while jogging on the treadmill (I found that out pretty quickly). ... Read more

Product Description
G52 on lower portion of DJ. Not price clipped. Bright turquoise cloth with gilt on cover and spine with Modern Library logo appearing on cover in gilt. ... Read more

Product Description
A unique anthology of Joyce's non-fictional writings, this volume addresses diverse issues such as aesthetics, the functions of the press, censorship, Irish cultural history, English literature and Empire. The collection includes newspaper articles, reviews, lectures and essays, and covers 40 years of Joyce's life. These pieces also clarify and illuminate the transformations in Joyce's fiction, from Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to the first drafts of Ulysses. Gathering together more than fifty essays, several of which have never been available in an English edition, this is the most complete and the most helpfully annotated collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

JJ's early aesthetics
This volume has value to the JJ scholar, not to the casual reader.Most of these essays are drawn from Joyce's early artistic period, ca. 1898--1910, covering his undergraduate presentations and young aesthetic pronouncements.I recommend this book for Joyceans looking to augment their readings of Dubliners, Portrait, and some of Ulysses (especially the Telemachiad and "Scylla and Charybdis").A problem I have with this volume is the fact that each essay's time and place is revealed only in the endnotes.

Readable Joyce Writings
Kevin Barry compiles a collection of James Joyce's critical writings in Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing.This collection includes articles, manuscripts, and lectures that had been previously published in Irish and Italian journals.Most of the writings parallel what he wrote about in Dubliners, Ulysses, and his creative poetry.Barry suggests that the journalistic criticism that James Joyce wrote about Ireland were to be published in one single volume, which was supposed to be geard toward an Italian audience in which he lectured to in Trieste.

This book offers readers an insight on Joyce's political and critical meanderings that relate to all gamuts of Irish society.As one reads these writings, one will observe a sense of naivite in Joyce's early writings, but will see his growth and maturation as a writer in later ones.Joyce covers history as well as literature in long and short vignettes.The articles, book reviews, and manuscripts were written over a 40 year period of Joyce's life.They show his growth as a critical writer and author from a teenager to an adult.He relates issues pertaining to Irish society and literature, James Clarence Mangan, Oscar Wilde, and George Meredith as well as the most prominent writers in British literature, Daniel Defoe, William Blake, and Charles Dickens.In particular, several of the writings have both a serious and humorous tone that makes Joyce's writings even more interesting to read.

Barry does a fine job at presenting these samples of Joyce's writings.The footnotes and the explanatory notes are extremely helpful in providing background information for the book.Conor Deane deserves praises for translating Joyce's works from Italian to English, and for those who want to see the original transcript of each writing, they are included in Italian and French in the Appendix section of the book.

Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing is recommended reading for readers interested in having a better understanding of James Joyce's literary criticism.In addition, the works offer insight to how he approached his early and colossal work, Dubliners and Ulysses.It is, indeed, recommended for the curious literature reader or Joyce aficionado. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1927 Joseph Campbell was given clues to reading James Joyce's labyrinthine Ulysses by its original publisher Sylvia Beach and, as he said, it changed his career. His discoveries became the foundation for his later work in comparative mythology. To analyze Ulysses and Joyce's other works, he employed depth psychology, anthropology, religion, and art history as tools. A treasure for Joyce and Campbell fans alike, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words collects 60 years of Campbell's writings, lectures, and other commentary on Joyce, including exchanges with his audiences and Campbell's 1941 Joyce obituary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Pain reading James
I love Joe Campbell, and his analysis of Joyce's writing was a savior.But even that was not enough to warrant giving this book an above average rating.If you have analyzed or read Ulysses or Finnigan's Wake in the past you will probably enjoy the book more than I.But for a novice, this was an awfully tough read.

gerat stuff
a great book. This a a thorough investigation on the roots of inspiration of the 20th century's greater novelist. A must!

Its return to print will delight Joyce and Campbell fans
This informed and informative survey of the late Joseph Campbell's published writings and lectures on James Joyce will serve as both an introduction to Joyce's major works and as a critical survey of his literary, spiritual and psychological leanings. Mythic Worlds, Modern Worlds has been long out of print: its return to print will delight Joyce fans and Campbell readers alike.

Joyce as a lens on Campbell
Joseph Campbell's encounter with the writings of James Joyce proved a major turning point in his life. After graduate work at Columbia (where he specialized in the Arthurian cycle, writing his thesis on "The Dolorous Stroke" delivered to the Grail King), he went to Paris to study medieval philology and Old French and Provencal.

In 1927 Campbell purchased a copy of Joyce's Ulysses (which was banned in the United States), but could make neither heads nor tails of it. (I have to admit it is reassuring, given Campbell's intellectual reputation, to know that he too was stumped on occasion). Joe, full of exuberant confidence, tracked down Joyce's publisher, Sylvia Beach, at Shakespeare & Co., to express his "high academic indignation." Beach introduced Campbell to a body of work from diverse authors (Schopenhauer, Dante, Vico, etc.) that opened his understanding to what Joyce was doing. In Joe's own words, "...that was almost the end of my interest in medieval philology." During the period of Campbell's studies in Paris and in Germany, Joyce was publishing snippets of early versions of Finnegan's Wake as a work-in-progress, in the journal "transitions" - so Joe was able to follow the evolution of this protean opus long before it attained its final shape. Referring to these sketches, Campbell said, "That's what taught me. And there you have it. It's funny how it changed my career."

Campbell was so sold on Finnegan's Wake - which most American critics dismissed as impenetrable, a self-indulgent exercise in literary masturbation - that in 1944 he authored, along with Henry Morton Robinson, "A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake" - which remains influential in the field of Joycean criticism yet today. Anyone who spends any time with Campbell's work can't help but notice Joyce's influence on Campbell's thought: in fact, i'd go so far as to say an understanding of Joycean themes is essential to fully grasp Campbell's mythic perspective. That's not to say you won't "get Campbell" if you don't read Joyce - but both men are clearly swimming in the same ocean.

For nearly sixty years Campbell followed in Sylvia Beach's patient, helpful footsteps, presenting ever wider audience with clues to enrich the reader's experience and understanding of Joyce's work. Besides the Skeleton Key (which is the first book to list Campbell as author, five years before the appearance of "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" - which itself was tentatively titled "How to Read A Myth"), JC wrote essays and delivered lectures on the subject, many of which have been collected in Campbell's "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce," originally published by the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF) in 1993.

The JCF released a new edition of "Mythic World, Modern Words" in late 2003. Edited by Joycean scholar Edmund L. Epstein, this volume has three major divisions, each examining one of Joyce's novels - "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Ulysses," and "Finnegan's Wake" - along with other bits and pieces by Campbell on the subject, including an enlightening question and answer session that concludes the book.

I love it!

The re-release is in every way superior to the original volume. The book is more compact, easier to handle, with a beautiful cover design of Andrea del Sarto's renaissance painting, "Daedalus and Icarus." Whereas chapter headings in the original volume looked more like titles typed at the top of the page of a college manuscript, in the current volume they are better designed and better placed

...but, most important to me, is the inclusion of an index (!), absent in the original volume.

There are so many Campbell gems buried in the pages of "Modern Worlds, Mythic Words" that the binding of my original volume is falling apart, so many times have I flipped through the pages in search of an ideal yet elusive quote. The index in the updated volume makes all the difference!

If you enjoy Joyce, "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words" is an ideal companion volume - but even if you've never read Joyce and never plan to, it's still an excellent survey of the work of the man critics claim is the most important author of the 20th century - and provides clarity and insight into Joseph Campbell's mythic perspective.

Here are a couple examples of thought provoking passages:

"In the field of consciousness research - and also in physics and astronomy - we are breaking past the cause-and-effect, mechanistic way of interpreting things. In the biological sciences, there is a vitalism coming in that goes much further toward positing a common universal consciousness of which our brain is simply an organ. Consciousness does not come from the brain. The brain is an organ of consciousness. It focuses consciousness and pulls it in and directs it through a time and space field. But the antecedent of that is a universal consciousness of which we are all just a part." (p.286)

or this gem, commenting on a passage from Joyce's Ulysses:

"Joyce says we are all in this vibration. The miracle of the Incarnation is the Magnificat of each one of us: Florry Christ, Stephen Christ, Zoe Christ, and so on - we are all particles of the Christ. Very frequently, you know, Joyce brings out key thoughts in a totally contrary kind of language and situation. So his essential message here - and this is the Gnostic message - is that the face of god is the face before you: your friend, a stranger, whomever." (p.151)

Much food for thought here!

A great book
From his first encounter with Joyce's writings in Paris in 1927, Campbell remained deeply involved with the works of Joyce. He gave many lectures on Joyce, frequently read from his works, and published a number of articles on Joyce's works. This book provides a survey of Campbell's Joycean studies by conflating his articles and representative lectures, from his obituary notice on the death of Joyce in 1941 to lectures delivered within a few years of Campbell's death. Also included, in the "Dialogues" section, is a selection of Campbell's responses to questions from members of the audience at some of his lectures. Questions from listeners seemed to fire Campbell, and some of these exchanges provide a deeper insight into the material presented in the formal lectures. This book contains both elementary material and advanced analysis of the work of Joyce; it is, therefore, both an introduction to Joyce's major works and a major contribution to Joyce criticism. The whole provides a representative portrait of Joseph Campbell as a critic of Joyce. 304 pp. (From the back cover). ... Read more

Product Description
James Joyce's Ulysses is probably the most famous-or notorious-novel published in the twentieth century. Its length and difficulty mean that readers often turn to critical studies to help them in getting the most out of it. But the vast quantity of secondary literature on the book poses problems for readers, who often don't know where to begin. This casebook includes some of the most influential critics to have written on Joyce, such as Hugh Kenner and Fritz Senn, as well as newer voices who have made a considerable impact in recent years. A wide range of critical schools is represented, from textual analysis to historical and psychoanalytic approaches, from feminism to post-colonialism. One essay considers the relation between art and life, nature and culture, in Ulysses, while another explores the implications of the impassioned debates about the proper editing of Joyce's great work. In an iconoclastic discussion of the book, Leo Bersani finds reasons for giving up reading Joyce. All the contributions are characterized by scrupulous attention to Joyce's words and a sense of the powerful challenge his work offers to our ways of thinking about ourselves, our world, and our language. Also included are records of some of the conversations Joyce had with his friend Frank Budgen during the composition of Ulysses in Zurich, and in an appendix readers will find a version of the schema which Joyce drew up as a guide to his book. Derek Attridge provides an introduction that offers advice on reading Ulysses for the first time, an account of the remarkable story of its composition, and an outline of the history of the critical reception that has played such an important part in our understanding and enjoyment of this extraordinary work. ... Read more

Product Description
Psychoanalytic readings of Joyce abound, despite Joyce's deliberate attempts to resist them. Luke Thurston argues that this very antagonism determines how psychoanalytic thinking can influence Joycean criticism and literary theory. Thus, Jacques Lacan attempts to understand how Joyce's writing presents an unreadable signature that defies translation into discourse. Thurston imaginatively develops Lacan's work to illuminate Joyce's position in a literary hierarchy that includes Shakespeare, Hogg, Stevenson and Wilde. ... Read more

Product Description
Perhaps the most important literary achievement of the 20th century, Ulysses is also one of the most challenging. This reference introduces beginning readers to Joyce and his novel, removes some of the obstacles readers face when confronting the text, provides background information to facilitate understanding, and illuminates the critical dialogue surrounding the work. A short biography and a survey of the importance and cultural impact of Ulysses is followed by the most detailed available plot summary. Chapters overview the novel's publication history, contexts, major themes, narrative structure and style, and critical reception. The volume closes with a bibliographical essay. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

OUR MIGHTY AMAZON HOLDS A WEALTH OF SIMILAR LESS COSTLY VOLUMES
In particular I suggest Prof. Hugh Kenner's very insightful and lively commentary entitled simply Ulysses. Please do a search of the amazon with the parameters ulysses joyce and you will find shelves full of now inexpensive volumes. I say begin with Kenner, although each one I read appears to me at that moment the essential one. FOr instance, Rickard's book on memory in Ulysses appears at this moment the best I have seen (if a bit repetitive, not good repetitive like in Ulysses, but same-thing repetitive), at least until Joyce's REvenge comes soon in the mail.

For beginners I suggest SChwartz's Reading Ulysses. Above all do go ahead and get Donal Donnelly's COMPLETE UNABRIDGED (not like Jim Norton's) 40 disk audio recording now available. I play it constantly day and night and begin with the aid of Prof. Kenner to get a glimpse of the treasure which lies here within Joyce's bejewelled puzzle.

But you must enter into it on your own, as you would a silent still lake-filled cavern, or Alice's mirror. This is definitely not a book to read as part of a one semester general course. It is a book to inhabit the rest of your life, intimately and deeply personally. As a friend of Gabriel Garcia Marquez told him early and urgently in his life: this is the Other Bible. Enter.

Permission to amend and revise my comments now many months later:

Reading Joyce's Ulysses by Daniel Schwartz remains for me the most profound and excellent general commentary available, carefully examining each episode and each line and tying the whole together very concisely and clearly. You might well begin and end with this one commentary by Schwartz and never miss the rest of the more specialized works. Or am I simply jealous I cannot yet afford McKenna's work? No. I don't know. Read Reading Joyce's Ulysses and you will find good meat enough.

A Life-Saver
Bernard McKenna's guide to ULYSSES is written in an easy-to-understand style that facilitates an understanding of the novel.I read ULYSSES, or was assigned to read it, as part of a course here at university.I couldn't get past the third chapter, until I discovered Bernard McKenna's guide.He takes you through the book, step by step and helps you understand what's going on.He also introduces the critical dialgue surrounding the book, which is a great help.The book is like having your own private teacher there to help you.

impressive
I wouldnt have understood 3 words of Ulysses if it werent for this book! I wish they made these guides for more difficult books..Thanks

Pure genius!
Having to read Ulysses for my senior research paper seemed a daunting task.I was about to go searching for the Cliff's Note's.Mr. McKenna really made sense of the book, the history, and even the life and times.I really appreciate it!

Amazing!
Dr. Bernard McKenna is an absolute genius.He makes even the hardest, most indecipherable text in this novel understandable. Not to mention the insight of James Joyce's life! I would recommend this to any student, or teacher to use as reference.Tis a must have to any James Joyce fan! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Burgess at his best
Now I'll probably get every hard-core Joyce scholar upset but this is a great work by a great author.The more I learn about Burgess, the more I find him a real genius.This book is no exception.He's written two books on Joyce, this and ReJoyce.Skip the other.This was written later, a play on Joyce Speak, sprechen (german) past tense sprach I think -- it's been a while. Or pun it as you will, a fun little title conjuring up playful associations that is at the heart of much of Joyce.Burgess sees Joyce, even in Finnegan's Wake, as completely readable and this book shows us how.Burgess also expounds upon what he considers the two types of literature, the bad-plot-driven-ugly-writing stuff and the literature where the author pays attention not only to plot etc, but to language.Burgess once said Nabokov (I paraphrase) didn't have anywhere near the talent of Joyce.Whoa! How to make such a bold statement.Well the book teaches us many things.It's a true gem, this book.If you love Joyce you'll love this. I am still, three weeks after reading it, framing the world and other literature by his insights. ... Read more

Product Description
Vincent Sherry combines a detailed study of Ulysses with new critical arguments. He provides a useful guide to the episodic sequence of Joyce's novel and presents an inquisitive interpretation of this master work, re-addressing major issues in Ulysses criticism. Demonstrating how Joyce's modernist epic redefines Homer's Odyssey, he examines Joyce's extraordinary verbal experiments. First Edition Hb (1994): 0-521-42075-X First Edition Pb (1994): 0-521-42136-5 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AS WITH ALL THINGS JOYCE, LOOKS ARE DECEIVING IN THE INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE
Let not the reader become deceived by the apparently smaller size of this very substantial and brilliant and comprehensive work of great depth. At about eight by five inches and 150 pages it may seem smaller than other more ambitious or specialized commentaries on Joyce, many of which come from the publish or perish school of academic publications. In this case, a great thing comes in a highly portable package.

The more you look into this small book, the more there is to see, as with its infinite subject.

This second edition of Sherry's book (first published in 1994 and republished with updating and expansion in 2004 for the great centenary celebration) serves as part of Cambridge University Press's Landmarks of World Literature series, which also examines Dante, Homer (twice), Chaucer, Virgil, Camus, Shikibu, etc. (thus far no Shakespeare).

Joyce among Homer and Dante discovers himself in familiar and friendly company, arising as a newer landmark among the old. His work, Ulysses, once banned from sale in England and America, now forms a cornerstone, or even capstone, in modern English language writing, as Sherry himself comments. Nothing after fails to feel its influence. Ulysses was voted greatest novel in history by the New York Review of Books last century.

I ever enjoy beginning a book at the back and working forward, and this one is no different. The final section, before the appendix and suggestions for further readings, is entitled "P(ost) S(criptum) U(lysses)," using Ezra Pound's famous acronym to indicate that all writing, poetic and novelistic, after Ulysses, cannot help but be informed by its influence.

Truly Ulysses serves as landmark, after which there is no turning back in later literature, no turning aside, but merely its extension and redundant elaboration, of which, as Sherry writes, only "the quality of influence merits critical consideration."

It would be impossible within this present format to examine fully every aspect of how very well this commentary serves in opening all aspects of Ulysses and its critical history of criticism, both to the initiate and the seasoned Joycean scholar. There is always something new to consider,
and, as Sherry points out, subsequent schools of criticism, although contradicting one another, each find substance and strength in Ulysses.

Please get this excellent, comprehensive and very inexpensive commentary. It replaces the need for at least one or two shelfloads of other commentaries, itself humbly occupying only the space of a jacket pocket, and indicates further research for several future shelves.

Small yet substantially comprehensive. Well worth the price, and the joy of reading, and the insight it brings us into Ulysses, and the three fields of its criticism: structural, linguistic and socio-historical. ... Read more

Product Description
Joyce's fictionalized autobiographical love story is presented together with textual and documentary notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Prose-poem of middle-aged desire, unrequited
Next to "Pomes Penyeach," this ranks rather low on my shelf compared to the major Joycean texts; it was published only in 1968. Still, it's around 3.5 stars, as it's a minor effort by a major genius. Richard Ellmann in his introduction to this edition accurately finds in its versifying unfortunate traces of the "anemic" style of his other verse. I agree. I doubt if ever it was offered anonymously to a press it would have seen the light of day, yet this is a value judgment impossible to realistically consider nearly a century later. Joyce sent it to "The Egoist" in 1914, but then withdrew it and instead, as Ellmann notes, pillaged it for use in his greater works in their slow progress. We come to these few lines knowing Joyce. So, we approach this as a prose-poem deserving respect and acclaim. It glows with the aura of its creator, as even a lesser work by a classic artist can dazzle intermittently.

Most critics, following up clues that Ellmann in 1968 had not identified, match the dark Jewish girl that the narrator falls for, if only in his thoughts, with Amalia Popper, a student that Jim/Jamesy as named here becomes enchanted-- and possibly repulsed-- with as he teaches her in a Trieste classroom. The prose-poem floats into the realms of an older consciousness than Dedalus and a younger one than Bloom, but as Ellmann observes it prepares the way for "Ulysses" in its plunge into a stream of associations around the allure and horror of the feminine body. Written around the time Joyce turned thirty, the editor notes that even for late-blooming Italians, the time of adolescence generously granted ended, and "youth" began with the start of one's fourth decade. "A love poem which is never recited, it is Joyce's attempt at the sentimental education of a dark lady, a farewell to a phase of his life, and at the same time a discovery of a new form of imaginative expression." (ix) This wandering set of short reflections, evanescent and graphic, evocative and shadowed, shimmers like dreams half-recalled and half-articulated in words rather than a vanishing miasma of images, terrors, and langours.

P.S. A collection of essays, "Giacomo Joyce: Envoys of the Other," has been published June 2007; it is astonishing that 400 pp. can emerge from scholarly attention to these eight large sheets of a few hundred lines at most, but such is the appeal of Joyce and the fervor of academics as they combine to make even this, one of his most evanescent and fragile texts, worthy of sustained scrutiny.

A fragmentary minor work of a master
Joyce in Trieste was enamored , or perhaps more correctly lusted after his young student, Amalia Popper. The record of this never consummated romantic relation is the subject of this fragmentary minor work of the great master.

masterpiece of James Joyce
you can't to read all books of Joyce. You can to read only "Giacomo Joyce" and you'll understand of Joyce in whole ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: B. W. HuebschPublication date: 1918Subjects: AuthorsAlienation (Social psychology)Dublin (Ireland)Drama / GeneralDrama / AmericanDrama / English, Irish, Scottish, WelshHistory / Europe / IrelandLiterary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, WelshLiterary Criticism / DramaNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insights into Joyce's life through his only dramatic work
Worth a few hours perusal, as it's doubtful you'll see it on stage. Often relegated to the back of the Joycean shelf for its protagonist who resembles a nearly identical profile to his maker, nonetheless the play has its appeal as a portrait of the artist post-Stephen Dedalus. Written ten years after Bloomsday and the flight into exile by him and Nora, Joyce presents an update on his earlier portrayal of the young Irishman determined to turn his back on his mother, his homeland, and his faith.

The more you know about Joyce and Nora, when he returned to Ireland in 1909 to be consumed with jealousy by rumors that she had been unfaithful to him with Joyce's old friend Vincent Cosgrave, and then in 1911-12 when Joyce confronted Roberto Prezioso in Trieste, accusing him of trying to seduce Nora, the more you may find this three-act play, written in 1914, intriguing. Certainly it's in the style of Ibsen, and generally as a minor work has been regarded of interest more for its insights into the mentally tortured artist, Richard (or "Dick") Rowan, but the play moves along efficiently, if a bit melodramatically and wordily.

The action takes place over two days, and compresses as you'd expect much about the roles of artists, exiles, and lovers as the new century's own franker treatment of infidelity and its aftermath generate, beneath the dramaturgical machinations that do creak about, surprisingly moving moments of truth. Doubt and betrayal, the challenge of defying the bonds of sexual monogamy, aesthetic truth vs. job security, the benefits and the costs of an "open relationship"-- all contribute contemporary themes that for this era had begun to enter Irish theatre as they already had influenced (back to Ibsen) many contemporary Continental and British plays. One wonders about the hometown reaction if Yeats had not rejected it (it wasn't an Irish folk drama) for the Abbey in August 1917!

Reading the play, observers today, informed as we are by the life of the writer and his own tensions in love and vocation, can see how Joyce in the guise of Richard controls other characters, like it or not. Joyce's own guilty conscience in his alter ego of Richard dominates. Robert, Bertha, and especially Beatrice all revolve around the approval of Richard. Bertha & Robert make an appealing pair, in my opinion; their earthiness makes them more down-to-earth for our tastes, while Richard, unless acted well, may not escape priggishness beneath the attitude of a liberated modern freethinker. He, despite his hesitancy, rules this domestic roost. (Not much is even thinly disguised when it comes to this figure and his unmarried companion-- they have returned to Dublin after nine years in Rome.) Even if Richard is more of a stand-in for his creator, the "authorial fallacy" aside, the drama does enrich your understanding of Joyce in his own separation from not only Ireland but conventional moral standards and familial support.

It's rarely performed. Earlier versions, "A Brilliant Career" & "Dream Stuff," no longer exist. Joyce told Ezra Pound that he doubted it could work in the theatre. But the set-up, however schematic, between Richard, Bertha, his companion (and mother of their child, Archie), her wooer Robert Hand, and in turn his first cousin and thwarted amour, Beatrice-- who neatly longs for Richard-- does have its moments of tenderness, insight, and even a line proclaiming the need for Ireland to turn towards not only Europe but to coffee for inspiration!

His greatness is not revealed here
One of Joyce's great heroes was Ibsen who he corresponded with. But drama was not to be the form that Joyce excelled in. It is possible to argue that the 'Nighttown dialogue' of Ulysses is one of its weakest chapters. In his play 'Exiles' which is a kind of love triangle drama built around Joyce's imaginings of a wife's betrayal of her husband the drama does not come to life. And so the work has interest primarily because it is another work of the great genius Joyce. ... Read more

Product Description

James Joyce's self-referential, allusive, and pun-filled works are widely recognized as the signature pieces of European modernist literature, and helped hasten the 20th Century break from traditionally recognized forms of prose. He repeatedly explored the themes of childhood and adulthood, and youth and maturity while simultaneously widening the boundaries of the novel.

This collection includes selections from his most important works: Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners. The most fascinating treat here is the landmark recording of James Joyce reading selections from Ulysses. This rare recording was made in 1924, and Joyce's reading provides the singular experience of hearing the work as he intended it to be read.

Also providing the unique insight of spoken-word to these wonderful works are the accomplished, sensitive and expressive performers Cyril Cusack, Siobhan McKenna, Jim Norton, Colm Meaney, and E.G. Marshall.

Customer Reviews (7)

A definitive collection
The Siobhan McKenna reading of Molly Bloom's soliloquy is sublime.
The vendor from whom I bought this through Amazon was prompt, professional, and courteous.

J. Joyce
This just wasn't my cup of tea.Couldn't get through the CD.Found it difficult to understand, and when Joyce was actually reading, I couldn't understand a word.This CD was a waste of my money.

A rare jewlry
I am very satisfied of having opportunity to hear this work and Joyce reading it. Beautiful!

Fantastic!Yet . . . Be Advised . . .
If you are a fan (student?) of Joyce, this set is indeed wonderful and, yes, indispensable.

In the "Truth in Advertising" department, however, be advised that the recording of Joyce reading from Ulysses is very short (just a little over four minutes!).The outer package states, "The most fascinating treat here is the landmark recording of James Joyce reading selections from Ulysses.This rare recording was made in 1924, and Joyce's reading provides the singular experience of hearing the work as he intended it to be read."In truth, there is just one selection of Joyce reading from Ulysses; representing barely one-and-one-half pages from Chapter 7, Aeolus (pp. 142-43 in the 1990 Vintage International Edition).

Another inconsistency concerns the recording date:There is a written quotation in the package attributed to Sylvia Beach that provides informative details about the process by which she recorded Joyce reading from Ulysses in 1924. She goes on to say that Joyce was adamant that "this would be his only reading from Ulysses."Yet the CD track listings indicate that the Ulysses excerpt was recorded "circa 1921."Which is it?

Further, given the considerable logistics, negotiations and expense that Beach apparently invested in order to record Joyce, it seems inconceivable that they would have recorded for only four minutes; notwithstanding the "primitive manner" of recording in the early 1920s.Where is the rest?Do other selections really exist?

The set includes one other, somewhat longer selection of Joyce reading from the Anna Livia Plurabelle section of Finnegan's Wake (three pages at the end of Book One; pp. 213-16 in my ancient copy of the Viking Compass Edition).It was recorded "circa 1932," and lasts eight-and-a-half minutes.

In both excerpts, there are some slight, inconsequential discrepancies between the recorded and written versions; often simply affecting word order. These do make one wonder which version Joyce intended.

So here you have a total of fourteen-and-a-half minutes of Joyce's voice.Believe me, I am not complaining.But if you have read this far, it's a fair bet that you, too, would like to know how much (or how little) of Joyce's voice is actually contained in this 4-CD set.The sound quality is pretty good, considering the age, particularly if you follow along in the books while listening.And that is no doubt the best way to experience these recordings, in order to more fully appreciate Joyce's wonderful lilt, accent, pronunciation & emphasis; and to gain a much better understanding of his meaning.

Would that we could hear Joyce reading all of Ulysses!But, this little bit is infinitely better than nothing!

The selections recorded by other readers are excellent, too, but that would be the subject of another review.Best regards.

Great to experience...
I had a brief introduction to James Joyce by reading "Araby" ions ago in high school, and was looking to become more acquainted with his works. This collection performed by Gabriel Byrne was a joy to listen to...who better to hear it from than a Dubliner and a great actor to boot?! Although I was debating whether or not it was better to read his works directly before listening to any interpretation, film or audio alike, I don`t regret it. In fact, I think it will help me appreciate Joyce more when I go back to read the works featured. The chamber music as well left me thinking of another time and place, adding a nice backdrop for the dialogue. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of original, cohesive and concise essays charts the vital contextual backgrounds to Joyce's life and writing. The volume begins with a chronology of Joyce's publishing history, an analysis of his various biographies and a study of his many published and unpublished letters. It goes on to examine how his works were received in the main twentieth-century critical and theoretical schools. Most importantly, it places Joyce within multiple Irish, British and European contexts, providing a lively sense of the varied and changing world in which he lived, which formed him, and from which he wrote. The essays collectively show how Joyce was rooted in his times, how he is both a product and a critic of his multiple contexts, and how important he remains to the world of literature, criticism and culture. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection includes five of James Joyce's celebrated works: Ulysses, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chamber Music, and Exiles, the only play published by Joyce.Includes an active table of contents.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Duplicate
Same as The James Joyce Collection: Ulysses, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chamber Music, Exiles (Halcyon Classics) and one other. This is spamming! ... Read more