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CliffsNotes on Joyce's Ulysses, Revised Edition (Cliffsnotes Literature Guides) by Edward A Kopper
The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.In "CliffsNotes on Ulysses, " you explore James Joyce's fascinating literary masterpiece. This novel, written in stream of consciousness and unfolding over a 24-hour period, follows "everyman" Leopold Bloom as the 20th-century version of Homer's Odysseus, as he goes through the most normal of days.Chapter summaries and commentaries take you through Joyce's novel, and character analyses help you understand the main characters of the novel. Other features that help you study includeA section on the life and background of James JoyceA review section that tests your knowledgeA selected bibliographyClassic literature or modern modern-day treasure -- you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 6, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 24, 2012
I wanted to find out what the famous Cliffs Notes said about Ulysses.
It turned out to be bad.
Really bad.
As bad as bad as bad could be.
Now, students should study literature, and they should be examined in their studies in a rigorous and merciless way before giving them their certificate of competence. That is all fine and dandy.
If, however, I am able to infer the type of exam students will be sitting from reading the kind of guide to answers provided in Cliff Notes then – it would appear – our exam system in English literature is successfully reducing great works to vile box ticking and train-spotting exercises, plot, character, theme, technique, all boxed up with a shudder and labelled with wretchedness.
Explain the significance of the Bloom’s lemon soap and why he transfers it from one pocket to another throughout the day?
Discuss Bloom's penis with particular reference to masturbation.
In the Circe episode why does Stephen's mother do the frug?
These notes are chronically joysucking, laughterkilling loveless anticelebrations of what should be doors, bridges and windows, not to mention explosions of mindmelting brilliance, and not dungeons and shackles in the mind.
For instance - and these are actual quotes, not made up by myself -
Readers should understand immediately that this chapter is first of all filled with many references to long cylindrical objects similar to the red-hot stave-like weapon which Odysseus used to blind his captor.
Keyes's demand for two crossed keys at the top of his ad suggests the keyless plight of Ulysses' two male protagonists, as does the allusion to "home rule".
It is fashionable today to view this religious symbolism as being suggestive of a tri-union of Bloom, Stephen and Molly, in which Bloom and Stephen share elements of God the Father and God the Son, and in which Molly becomes the Mystical Bride, that is, the Bride of the Catholic Church.
The rising and falling of the biscuit tin which was flung by the Citizen is reflected in the various ascents and declines in Nausicaa : for example, Gerty MacDowell's tempting leg, the roman candle's rise and climactic explosion, and the swinging censor of the church benediction – all of these risings and fallings lead up to and down from the simultaneous orgasms of Gerty and Bloom.
Groan – leaving aside that I don't think Gertie had an orgasm for a second, it's just not credible -but how perfectly dreadful this is. How sorry I feel for students having to drag their sorry asses (note examples of other moribund beasts of burden in the Eumaeus episode) through Ulysses, then these damned notes, then the double-damned exam itself.
Show how Cliffs Notes represent a reductive and ultimately self-defeating attitude to English literature, with particular reference to their notes on Ulysses.
You have one hour.
You may begin.
It turned out to be bad.
Really bad.
As bad as bad as bad could be.
Now, students should study literature, and they should be examined in their studies in a rigorous and merciless way before giving them their certificate of competence. That is all fine and dandy.
If, however, I am able to infer the type of exam students will be sitting from reading the kind of guide to answers provided in Cliff Notes then – it would appear – our exam system in English literature is successfully reducing great works to vile box ticking and train-spotting exercises, plot, character, theme, technique, all boxed up with a shudder and labelled with wretchedness.
Explain the significance of the Bloom’s lemon soap and why he transfers it from one pocket to another throughout the day?
Discuss Bloom's penis with particular reference to masturbation.
In the Circe episode why does Stephen's mother do the frug?
These notes are chronically joysucking, laughterkilling loveless anticelebrations of what should be doors, bridges and windows, not to mention explosions of mindmelting brilliance, and not dungeons and shackles in the mind.
For instance - and these are actual quotes, not made up by myself -
Readers should understand immediately that this chapter is first of all filled with many references to long cylindrical objects similar to the red-hot stave-like weapon which Odysseus used to blind his captor.
Keyes's demand for two crossed keys at the top of his ad suggests the keyless plight of Ulysses' two male protagonists, as does the allusion to "home rule".
It is fashionable today to view this religious symbolism as being suggestive of a tri-union of Bloom, Stephen and Molly, in which Bloom and Stephen share elements of God the Father and God the Son, and in which Molly becomes the Mystical Bride, that is, the Bride of the Catholic Church.
The rising and falling of the biscuit tin which was flung by the Citizen is reflected in the various ascents and declines in Nausicaa : for example, Gerty MacDowell's tempting leg, the roman candle's rise and climactic explosion, and the swinging censor of the church benediction – all of these risings and fallings lead up to and down from the simultaneous orgasms of Gerty and Bloom.
Groan – leaving aside that I don't think Gertie had an orgasm for a second, it's just not credible -but how perfectly dreadful this is. How sorry I feel for students having to drag their sorry asses (note examples of other moribund beasts of burden in the Eumaeus episode) through Ulysses, then these damned notes, then the double-damned exam itself.
Show how Cliffs Notes represent a reductive and ultimately self-defeating attitude to English literature, with particular reference to their notes on Ulysses.
You have one hour.
You may begin.
May 9, 2019
what I liked: outline of book, relating each episode to the Odyssey, covered the major plot points, listed most of the characters, it did help--somewhat. Clearly a Joyce Fan and Scholar.
what I didn't like: the author of the Cliffs Notes, Kopper, comes across like a Serious Prude with a Stick Up His Ass, he is Fat Phobic and put his own personal judgments of the characters FAR too much into his summary of the story and meanings.
He didn't explain/translate any of the Latin quotations, forcing me to go on-line for all of those--this Cliffs Notes can't possibly stand alone.
Also he didn't even begin to cover the over 100 pages of painful nonsense that was the "Circe" Chapter in Absurdist Play format--I sincerely wished for more elucidation.
He spent a LOT of time mentioning other Joyce books and short stories, relating them to characters and events which did NOT help at all and definitely didn't belong in the Cliffs Notes.
what I didn't like: the author of the Cliffs Notes, Kopper, comes across like a Serious Prude with a Stick Up His Ass, he is Fat Phobic and put his own personal judgments of the characters FAR too much into his summary of the story and meanings.
He didn't explain/translate any of the Latin quotations, forcing me to go on-line for all of those--this Cliffs Notes can't possibly stand alone.
Also he didn't even begin to cover the over 100 pages of painful nonsense that was the "Circe" Chapter in Absurdist Play format--I sincerely wished for more elucidation.
He spent a LOT of time mentioning other Joyce books and short stories, relating them to characters and events which did NOT help at all and definitely didn't belong in the Cliffs Notes.
June 12, 2022
I wanted way more insight into biographical inspiration.
September 29, 2023
Great notes to help one understand the hardest English novel ever written.
December 22, 2022
This is the only book that I have ever read CliffsNotes for. I agree with many of the reviewer’s current insights. Around pages 90 through 100, seem to be the most useful, or at least the most that I have annotated in my copy.
This copy includes sections on the life of the author, a list of characters, chapter by chapter critical commentaries, character analysis, questions for review, and selected bibliography.
“But it is Molly‘s portrait of Bloom that is most crucial to an understanding of Ulysses, for in her thoughts about Bloom, we can see that Molly‘s adultery was triggered, basically, by the failings of two people. We sympathize with Bloom throughout the novel ; now, in “Penelope,” we hear Molly side of the story.”
This copy includes sections on the life of the author, a list of characters, chapter by chapter critical commentaries, character analysis, questions for review, and selected bibliography.
“But it is Molly‘s portrait of Bloom that is most crucial to an understanding of Ulysses, for in her thoughts about Bloom, we can see that Molly‘s adultery was triggered, basically, by the failings of two people. We sympathize with Bloom throughout the novel ; now, in “Penelope,” we hear Molly side of the story.”
October 15, 2022
Much appreciated compendium!! Glad the EBR library has a copy, too. ;)
February 9, 2016
Not super-proud, but yeah, I read this while reading Ulysses. It helps a lot, especially if you don't have an annotated version (I didn't) and get tired of constantly going online to look up annotations (I did).
If you do need this, take heart knowing that even scholars who've dedicated their professional lives to studying Ulysses still don't have it all figured out yet.
If you do need this, take heart knowing that even scholars who've dedicated their professional lives to studying Ulysses still don't have it all figured out yet.
September 21, 2008
Should I admit this? I've tried the book countless times as I feel as an English professor it should be within my grasp. Nope. Can't get through the first 100 pages. I'll likely keep trying - but these got me through courses where I needed to "own" my reading. Ironic, isn't it?
February 16, 2012
I would have been totally lost without this book. With it, only sort of lost.
June 12, 2015
Great companion to the book, between this and the annotated version increased my understanding by at least 50%!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews