'Ulysses', a Reader's Guide and more
There is no twentieth century reader who can claim never to have read Ulysses, even if only indirectly; for few writers of the century just past have escaped being influenced by this book. Ulysses has indeed become one of the mythical works of world literature –more so to those who have not read it than to those who have had the chance to enjoy from beginning to end its several hundred pages of dense and obscure writing.
There is perhaps no other book in the world literature which gives rise to such hopeless frustration in its would-be reader, from the very first chapter, the very first lines even, yet which, at the same time, continues to sell more than a hundred thousand copies annually. What is interesting is that even today, almost eighty years after the first edition of the book was published, when modernism of all kinds has infiltrated permanently into the collective unconscious of the serious reader, Joyce’s “egotistical” modernism still seems to present an obstacle to our free navigation of Ulysses.
So much has been written about this book that many people paradoxically feel obliged to embark on the process of reading it as a result of social pressure: in order not to appear ill-informed and uneducated. This kind of cultural activism, widespread in the metropolis of the Western world, invariably ends in disenchantment: such readers not only fail to “understand” the book but also, more importantly, miss out on the unlimited pleasure it offers to those who approach it in a different, “open-minded” spirit.
An important priority of 'Ulysses', a Reader's Guide was thus to provide a guide to reading the Joycean text in a way which serves to free the channels of enjoyment from any such obstacles…
From: 'Ulysses', A Reader's Guide, beginning of the 'Introduction' chapter. You may download below the whole text.
There is perhaps no other book in the world literature which gives rise to such hopeless frustration in its would-be reader, from the very first chapter, the very first lines even, yet which, at the same time, continues to sell more than a hundred thousand copies annually. What is interesting is that even today, almost eighty years after the first edition of the book was published, when modernism of all kinds has infiltrated permanently into the collective unconscious of the serious reader, Joyce’s “egotistical” modernism still seems to present an obstacle to our free navigation of Ulysses.
So much has been written about this book that many people paradoxically feel obliged to embark on the process of reading it as a result of social pressure: in order not to appear ill-informed and uneducated. This kind of cultural activism, widespread in the metropolis of the Western world, invariably ends in disenchantment: such readers not only fail to “understand” the book but also, more importantly, miss out on the unlimited pleasure it offers to those who approach it in a different, “open-minded” spirit.
An important priority of 'Ulysses', a Reader's Guide was thus to provide a guide to reading the Joycean text in a way which serves to free the channels of enjoyment from any such obstacles…
From: 'Ulysses', A Reader's Guide, beginning of the 'Introduction' chapter. You may download below the whole text.
| introduction.pdf |
'Ulysses', A Reader's Guide
|
 Covers of the three different editions of '''Ulysses', A Reader's Guide''. Dispel the intimidation
The author has put a serious effort to read the original primarily through its own gates of perception, which means that the various interpretation
theories
when they are called upon to support the study they do it on a second,
less theoretical and less
apparent, for the general reader, level. The author has tried wherever possible to prove the
authority of his suggestions by remitting persistently the reader to the
text. None the less the whole volume is
informed by current debates about literature and literary research
demonstrating the central place occupied by Joyce ’s achievement in those
debates.
One of the aims of this Companion Guide is to re-examine with a fresh eye most controversial topics about Ulysses. But the main intention has been to dispel the intimidation readers often feel when faced with Joyce ’s reputation as an arcane and difficult writer. Avoiding to simplify the multifaceted qualities of the Joycean writing the book tries to enhance and enrich the reader’s appreciation and enjoyment of the original. To get a better idea about this book one may download here the Scylla & Charybdis and the Cyclopes chapters which correspond to respective episodes of the original. 
|
||||
Other books on Joyce: Giacomo Joyce and Dear Dirty Dublin
He passed, dallying the windows of Brown Thomas, silk mercers. Cascades of ribbons. Flimsy china silks. A tilted urn poured from its mouth a flood of bloodhued poplin: lustrous blood... Gleaming silks, petticoats on slim brass rails, rays of flat silk stockings... High voices. Sunwarm silk. Jingling harnesses. All for a woman, home and houses, silk webs, silver, rich fruits, spicy from Jaffa. Agendath Netaim. Wealth of the world. A warm human plumpness settled down on his brain. His brain yielded. Perfume of embraces all him assailed. With hungered flesh obscurely, he mutely craved to adore.['Ulysses', 8th episode. Aris M. in Dublin circa 1984.]
Giacomo Joyce: translation plus essay.
 'Giacomo Joyce', cover of the Greek edition
«Envoy: Love me, love my umbrella.»
Giacomo Joyce, last stanza. Giacomo Joyce a posthumous poetic work of Joyce, with a preface by professor Richard Ellmann, was first published in 1968. A.M. has seen the translation of this book into Greek as an opportunity to comment on the Greek reception of Joyce. So in the Greek version of Giacomo Joyce, translated by A.M., has been added a lengthy essay bearing the emblematic title Who's reading James Joyce? In the book, published in 1994, two years before the first edition of 'Ulysses', a Reader's Guide, was also included the original English text accompanied by enlightening comments and notes. This work introduced A.M. as a Joycean scholar to the Greek reading public. |
Dear Dirty Dublin: a pictorial study
 'Dear Dirty Dublin', Cover
Though Dear Dirty Dublin is a famous quote that first appeared in Dubliners, A.M.'s book bearing that title is a pictorial study of Ulysses.* Following the strict structure of Ulysses, the book is composed of an equal number of chapters where black and white photos highlight facets of the novel. Short passages from Ulysses,
translated by A.M., add to the reader 's enjoyment as they underline in harmony with each photo the concept and the beauty of the quoted text. In this way the reader of Dear Dirty Dublin, even by flipping
through the pages, enters picture after picture into the realm of the complicate Joycean
topography. And by reading the selected passages he savors the beauty and the power of the original language.
A.M. 's book is not meant as a pictorial guide to Dublin; it is more an exegetical guide to the labyrinth of Ulysses. The photos below, excerpts from this book, stand as a proof to this statement. The book was published just one year after the first edition of Ulysses, a Reader's Guide that is in 1997. ----------------------------------- * In Dubliners the phrase is attributed to a certain reporter named Ignatius Gallagher (in the story: 'A little cloud'). The event is then re-worked magnificently in Ulysses (the 7th episode). |
