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Ulysses
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Chunky Read ULYSSES with reading schedule
I will give it a whirl, Meg....
Mod
Another one of my groups is reading this book at 1 chapter per month. That speed was good for me, but then I got sidetracked, so maybe it wasn't so good. ;) I've been meaning to get back to it; to be able to use it for 2 groups sounds like a good idea to me!
Great we would love to have you.
I will try...historically I have been known to lag behind and then give up...but I will try! Are there multiple versions of this? Is there a kindle version I can get my hands on? Would like to be on the same page as everyone :)
I actually downloaded the Project Guttenberg version, but I am sure there is a kindle version as well.
Mod
Mine is the Vintage paperback edition. Sheila's right, it's broken into 18 chapters, though in my edition, they're hard to find.
Thanks all! 18 Chapters does seem pretty straight forward.
I am very excited with our group. Kindle has a few versions ranging from free to $2.99. I will have to do some research as to which to pick. Regardless, I do break the reading down by chapters. Also, if you fall behind we can rearrange the reading schedule.
Hey All - I hope you enjoy "Ulysses" as much as I did. I read it last year, and it is maybe my favorite book. I used a Kindle version (Penguin Modern Classics - 997801419213030), and also listened to an audiobook at the same time, which helped me to hear the incredible rhythm of the language, plus it included some of the musical allusions which was cool.
The story is very simple - a day in the life of two men - Steven Dedalus and Leopold Bloom (June 16, 1904). It is crude and vulgar, but also splendid. And its cool that it paints an incredibly in depth picture of Dublin on that day.
The book is dense with world/Irish history, literature, musical, biblical references, so I used reference books to help me - "Ulysses" Annotated by Don Gifford and JAMES JOYCE'S ODYSSEY by Frank Delaney.
Delaney also has a fabulous podcast called "Re: Joyce" (rejoice) that is up to 93 episodes and is in Chapter 3. You might also want to check out Ulyssesseen.com which is a comic book - so far they only have Telemachus and Calypso done, but they release a new chapter each Blooms Day.
Again - Enjoy! I am really busy with work right now, and my reading has had to drop off a wee bit, but definitely will check in and chime in as I can.
BTW - I know this indicates what kind of a geek I am. This was really glorious fun for me.
Mod
And since we are talking geek, I have to admit I have been curious about reading this book since I was a kid, when I used to have a record with the Letter From Camp Song on it (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, here I am at Camp Granada). And one of the lines in that old, silly song is: "And the head coach, wants no sissies, so he reads to us from something called Ulysses."
Does anyone else remember that song? :o)
I do remember the song but not that verse. That is fabulous!
I don't remember that verse either.
I remember that song! How funny.Becky you are fund of information I hope you will join us in the discussion. Thank you.
Mod
Title: Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh lyrics
Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh,
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining.
I went hiking with Joe Spivy
He developed poison ivy
You remember Leonard Skinner
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.
All the counselors hate the waiters
And the lake has alligators
And the head coach wants no sissies
So he reads to us from something called Ulysses.
Now I don't want this should scare ya
But my bunkmate has malaria
You remember Jeffrey Hardy
They're about to organize a searching party.
Take me home, oh muddah fadduh, take me home, I hate Grenada
Don't leave me out in the forest where I might get eaten by a bear.
Take me home, I promise I will not make noise or mess the house with
other boys, oh please don't make me stay, I've been here one whole day.
Dearest fadduh, darling muddah,
How's my precious little bruddah?
Let me come home if ya miss me
I will even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me.
Wait a minute, it stopped hailing,
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing,
Playing baseball, gee that's better,
Muddah Fadduh kindly disregard this letter.
I definitely will join you. Joyce is amazing.
hahahaha, I remember that song now.
Is this the Joyce that has the story The Dead in it. I read that one ages ago. It was one of those reads I was glad I did but would never do again.
Hi Renee - Yes "The Dead" is one of the short stories in Dubliners. I must admit, it was a walk in the park, where Ulysses is more like a marathon. I adored both, but definitely not for everybody.
Ahhh It was Dubliners I read. I think one Joyce is enough for me in this lifetime. I am at an age where I don't feel the need for such a challange. I think I will read the Hunchback with thegroup reading the chunkey books. Joyce is a wonderful read but it is a challange. I am at a time in my life where I need easy let me relax reading.
I totally understand that! Isn't it wonderful that there are so many fabulous books for everybody? Why be miserable? Especially when this is for our enjoyment.
I agree. I used to say I would never reread. I have had to eat those words. I have found that rereading an old friend can bring a kind of comfort. I have also found that some books I hated when reread become favorites. This has taught me that some times thier is a right and a wrong time to read a book.I will someday read Ulysses but if I read it now it would not work. I just hope when the time comes I can find someone to read it with. If its like the Dubliners, I will want to discuss it.
Isn't that true! There are so many books I read I hated when I was younger, and love later. Or it simply wasn't the right time. Also the old friends do bring comfort, and often new insights. I recently re-read Jane Eyre for maybe the 4th time, and there were several insights I had not caught before.
One thing that is so wonderful about this club is when you are ready to tackle any book, there are lots of people who will be willing and want to chat about it!
I just saw this thread. I am in. I have been wanting to tackle Joyce, but was afraid to do it alone. I feel safer facing him with company. For some reason, I have not been getting my GR digests for a week and am missing on so much.
Did you check your settings? Maybe you have them set incorrectly?
As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. Not sure why they would spontaneously acquire new settings.
Just checking, how often did you set your digests, every day or weekly?
hmmmm, have you checked your email? Mine are sent to my email. Also check your spam list. If your email isn't recognizing the goodreads email then it goes to the spam mail.
My digest always goes to my email. That is how I always access it. I don't have a spam catcher program on my email because I don't want legitimate messages filtered out and I miss them.
Mod
We've been doing some database maintenance over the past week. We hope to get the digests back up by Friday. I'll post here again if there's an update.
But yesterday, and today, people are still posting that they are not receiving the digests. So it is not just you, Irene, and it looks like Goodreads is working on the issue. :o)
well that's good news.
Thank you, Sheila. I never think to check problem threads. Someone in another GR group did ask if anyone else was not receiving their digest. I was the only other person there that noted the issue, so I knew I was not alone, but was not sure how wide spread the problem was. It is always good to know the problem is not on my end.
Mod
Okay, the mailers are now catching up. If you've been missing daily digests, you should start seeing them again in the next 24-48 hours.
:o)
Thanks Sheila, I did get one today.
I just borrowed the book from my daughter-in-law. Over the weekend I will post the reading schedule and the start date.Is there anyone who is interested in leading the discussion or co-leading the discussion with me? If so, please pm me.
BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES JOYCE (from Cliff Notes)Born in Rathgar, a township of Dublin, on February 2, 1882, James Joyce was the oldest of ten children, five others dying in infancy. Joyce's father, John Stanislaus Joyce (1849-1931), the prototype for Simon Dedalus of Ulysses, was a charming, bright, but improvident "Mr. Micawber" sort of man, one whose profligacy occasioned the ever-declining family fortunes and led the Joyce children to a life of impoverishment.
Despite his family's economic situation, however, Joyce did manage to secure a fine education. From 1888 to 1891, he attended the prestigious Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, and, from 1893 to 1898, he attended the reputable Belvedere College, a Catholic day school in Dublin. Joyce graduated from University College, Dublin, in 1902.
One particularly important event that occurred during Joyce's schooldays was the death of Charles Stewart Parnell in October, 1891. The young Joyce, reinforced in his political and nationalistic convictions by his father, felt that the great nationalist leader, who fell from grace because of his affair with Kitty O'Shea, had been "betrayed" by his followers — that is, Parnell had been forced to resign from his position as head of Ireland's nationalist party because of the divorce trial of Captain and Kitty O'Shea. To commemorate the occasion of Parnell's death, the 9-year-old Joyce wrote a poem "Et Tu, Healy," which denounced the worst of the turncoats, and one reason that Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man cites for leaving Ireland is his fear that the country will always destroy its prophets.
At University College, Dublin, Joyce openly espoused a number of unpopular causes. He insisted upon the worth of Henrik Ibsen, considered anathema by conservative Dublin Catholics, and, at the age of 18, he published an article on "Ibsen's New Drama" in the Fortnightly Review. In 1900, he delivered a paper, "Drama and Life," before the Literary and Historical Society of the College, which advocated modern dramatists, as opposed to Shakespeare and the Greeks. Joyce's article "The Day of the Rabblement" (1901) denounced the beginning Irish theater movement, which Joyce believed was too insular, too cut off from European culture. Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats, and other leaders of the Irish Literary Theatre, it seemed to Joyce, were being too provincial in their stress upon peasant and folk drama.
After he left the University in 1902, Joyce went to Paris to study medicine and to write; after a brief time, he returned to Ireland, then left for Paris again in 1903 with the intention of devoting himself to full-time literary endeavors; he returned to Dublin when his father's telegram of April 10, 1903, announced his mother's imminent death (she died of cancer on August 13, 1903). Joyce's months of drifting in Dublin ended with the first days of 1904, when he seriously returned to his writing, and in June of that year, Joyce met Nora Barnacle, a 20-year-old Galway woman, with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. The famous "Bloomsday" in Ulysses, June 16, is probably the day on which Joyce discovered that he was in love with Nora. In October, 1904, they left for Zurich, where Joyce had been promised a position teaching at the Berlitz School.
With the improvement of his lifestyle, Joyce lost much of his bitterness towards the Ireland which he had decided never to visit again after 1912. In addition, in Zurich, he stepped up his "attack" upon the English language, his restructuring of traditional means of expression. Two clouds, however, did partially mar the relatively secure Zurich days: at the end of 1918 and the start of 1919, he began a tepid affair with a Swiss woman named Martha Fleischmann (she was Joyce's prototype for Martha Clifford in Ulysses), which ended sadly; and in August, 1917, Joyce began undergoing the first of eleven eye operations that were to continue for fifteen years. He left Zurich for Trieste in October, 1919, and then, at Pound's urging, he decided in the late spring of 1920 to move to Paris, the city in which he was to spend the next 19 years.
Joyce was relatively happy during his first years in the cosmopolitan city. Pound had arranged to have Joyce's books translated into French, and he felt that Paris was the best place to launch Ulysses. One friend lent Joyce a free flat; others, clothing and furniture. The well-known critic Valery Larbaud gave a public lecture on Ulysses two months before its publication, and the novel was finally published on Joyce's 40th birthday, February 2, 1922, by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company.
On March 10, 1923, Joyce began Finnegans Wake, the book that was to appear in parts in several magazines (most prominently in Eugene and Maria Jolas's transition from April, 1927, to April-May, 1938) until its publication as a whole on May 4, 1939. This enigmatic book cost Joyce most of his old literary associates, and its seemingly meaningless language alienated many of his friends. Pound complained that he could not understand what Joyce was doing in his new work; as a result, Pound's relationship with Joyce was strained after the late 1920s. Joyce's brother Stanislaus judged the book to be drivel. Joyce himself was so discouraged with the reception of his new work that in 1929 he proposed to the Irish writer James Stephens that he finish the book for him. The timing of the publication of Finnegans Wake as a whole, just months short of the declaration of World War II, was the final blow to a broken Joyce, who, shortly after, was once again forced to move because of international hostilities. In addition to all of his other disappointments, Joyce spent the 1930s in a desperate attempt to cure the schizophrenia of his daughter, Lucia. The task was a hopeless one, but Joyce persisted in trying to effect a restoration.
Joyce died on January 13, 1941, as the result of an undiagnosed duodenal ulcer. He is buried in the Fluntern Cemetery, which rises above Zurich.
My book is Vintage International/Random HouseIt is impossible to see the chapter divisions so if someone has that they can add to this schedule. Sorry but it might be confusing the way I am doing it.
Let the reading begin, having read the first part (US District Court Decision and book I for 4/15)
4/15: US District Court decision and Book I; read up to Horatio is Cynosure This Fair Day (~ 95 pages) for 4/22
4/22: Discuss 4/15 reading and read ~ 100 pages which should be #212
4/29: Discuss 4/22 reading and read ~ 70 pages
5/6: Discuss 4/29 reading and read ~ 80 pages to #421
5/13: Discuss 5/6 reading and read ~80 pages to #490
5/20: Discuss 5/13 reading and read ~ 90 pages to #578
5/27: Discuss 5/20 reading and read ~ 70 pages to #691
6/3: Discuss 5/27 reading and read ~ 40 pages to #682
6/10: Discuss 6/3 reading and read ~ Finish book
(my son gets married this weekend so someone needs to volunteer to lead discussion this weekend, can I say yay?)
6/17: Discuss entire book and pat ourselves on the back for completing a major literary endeavor
Mod
My version does not have the Court Decision at the front though, just a preface, but that shouldn't make too much difference. Here is your break down, with the chapters listed:
Let the reading begin.
Read beginning notes and Chapters 1-3 (Book 1)by 4/15
4/15: Discuss prior reading; read Chapters 4-7 (start of Book 2)
4/22: Discuss 4/15 reading and read Chapters 8-10
4/29: Discuss 4/22 reading and read Chapters 11-12
5/6: Discuss 4/29 reading and read Chapters 13-14
5/13: Discuss 5/6 reading and read first half of Chapter 15
5/20: Discuss 5/13 reading and read rest of Chapter 15
5/27: Discuss 5/20 reading and read Chapter 16 (Start of Book 3)
6/3: Discuss 5/27 reading and read Chapter 17
6/10: Discuss 6/3 reading and read Chapter 18~ Finish book
(my son gets married this weekend so someone needs to volunteer to lead discussion this weekend, can I say yay?)
6/17: Discuss entire book and pat ourselves on the back for completing a major literary endeavor
Meg, I would be happy to help lead when you are gone for your son's wedding. And I think we are all going to deserve a big pat on the back for completing this one! :o)
Sheila, You are the best, thank you so much for all of this and leading during my big event.
this has been some year for me, 2 sons weddings,Hurrican Irene, school strike, changing job position and a big high school reunion!
I'm definitely in--I read part of Ulysses for a class in college, and I've been wanting to read the rest but I'm not brave enough to do it on my own.
I think you are not alone Cassie! I am glad you are joining us.
OK - Couple things to remember as you start - the story really is amazingly simple - it's a day (June 16, 1904) in the life of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom and everybody around them in Dublin.
Also - the story follows Homer's The Odyssey. The chapters also go along with that. If you know the overall structure of the Odyssey, and some of the characters, it can help a bit.
Part One - The Telemachiad (it's about Ulysses son, Telemachus/Dedalus venturing out to find his father/Bloom)
1 - Telemachus
2 - Nestor
3 - Proteus
Part Two - The Odyssey
4 - Calypso
5 - Lotus Eaters
6 - Hades
7 - Aeolus
8 - Laestrygonians
9 - Scylla and Charybdis
10 - Wandering Rocks
11 - Sirens
12 - Cyclops
13 - Nausicaa
14 - Oxen of the Sun
15 - Circe
Part 3 - The Nostos (Ulysses returns home)
16 - Eumaeus
17 - Ithaca
18 - Penelope
Mod
Wow, Becky. I had no idea this book followed the Odyssey, not that I've read The Odyssey, though The Odyssey is another of those chunky reads that I do hope to tackle some day.
Chicks On Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
South of Broad (other topics)Middlemarch (other topics)
Fifty Shades of Grey (other topics)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (other topics)
Ulysses (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Pat Conroy (other topics)Frank Delaney (other topics)
"Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and unreadable. In a famous 1933 court decision, Judge John M. Woolsey declared it an emetic book--although he found it sufficiently unobscene to allow its importation into the United States--and Virginia Woolf was moved to decry James Joyce's "cloacal obsession." None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book. Even the verbal vaudeville of the final chapters can be navigated with relative ease, as long as you're willing to be buffeted, tickled, challenged, and (occasionally) vexed by Joyce's sheer command of the English language." Amazon
I am thinking of starting it midApril
Who is in?