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Ulysses on the Liffey

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"Ulysses on the Liffey" is not the first book on "Ulysses" I'd reach for. That would be "'Ulysses' Annotated." But, Ellmann's views on Joyce's masterpiece are extremely valuable to those who've read Joyce, and more than once. Like Lang in his "Music of Western Civilization," Ellmann says much in little space. I'd say a top 10 book on "Ulysses," all told.

Certainly ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY is a very close scrutiny of some of the lesser discussed aspects of Joyce's mammoth comic book. You can always depend on Richard Ellmann to give us the way-beneath-the-surface innuendoes and meanings of Joyce's writings. But because Ellmann is also so close to the life of the writer (he'd written the best biography of James Joyce) he, quite rightfully I believe, draws references from Joyce's experiences that went into the thinking and writing of ULYSSES.

By no means is this intended to be an introduction to ULYSSES. This is meant for the serious student of arguably Ireland's greatest 20th century writer, and the 20th century's most influential novel.

Contains detail on how Joyce developed Ulysses' structure based on Homer's Odyssey. It includes the types of revisions he made to his structure as he wrote, while undergoing his own "odyssey" through Italy. I didn't learn as much from this as from Ellmann's other books. I did find it parts of it intriguing: his connection with J.M. Synge; admiration for "Riders to the Sea" and relief that Synge wasn't interested in Aristotle's philosophy, leaving Joyce free to develop Aristotle's ideas in his own way. Joyce comes through this book as working consciously to define himself as unique, staking out terrain in "Ulysses" unclaimed by his Irish contemporaries.