Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses [Revised and Expanded Edition] (Paperback)

~ James Joyce (Author), (Compiler), Robert J. Seidman (Compiler)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A truly useful book in its explanation of puns, jokes, foreign phrases, and a myriad of other items including many helpful glosses on terms belonging to the vernacular of Dublin. For this last item alone the book is valuable because it documents much of the popular but fading idiom of the Dublin of 1904." -- Jay Fox, Modern Fiction Studies

"[Ulysses Annotated] teaches more than how to read a particular novel; it teaches us more profoundly how to read anything. This, I think, is the book's main virtue. It teaches us readers how to transform the brute fact of our world." -- Robert N. Ross, Western Humanities Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Here substantially revised and expanded, Don Gifford's annotations to Joyce's great modern classic comprise a specialized encyclopedia that will inform any reading of Ulysses. Annotations in this edition are keyed both to the reading text of the new critical edition of Ulysses published in 1984 and to the standard 1961 Random House edition and the current Modern Library and Vintage texts.
Gifford has incorporated over 1,000 additions and corrections to the first edition. The introduction and headnotes to sections provide general geographical, biographical and historical background. The annotations gloss place names, define slang terms, give capsule histories of institutions and political and cultural movements and figures, supply bits of local and Irish legend and lore, explain religious nomenclature and practices, trace literary allusions and references to other cultures.
The suggestive potential of minor details was enormously fascinating to Joyce, and the precision of his use of detail is a most important aspect of his literary method. The annotations in this volume illuminate details which are not in the public realm for most of us.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 698 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 2 Rev Exp edition (September 7, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520067452
• ISBN-13: 978-0520067455
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #251,460 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference, but not necessary to love Ulysses, April 24, 2002

By	"aeliason" (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Several years ago, when I embarked on my first reading of Ulysses, I purchased this book to help me deal with the famous Joycian allusions.

I was stunned by the size and careful detail of this annotation, since it rivals the size of Ulysses itself. For the first 60 pages or so of Ulysses, I religiously read every annotation for every allusion. And then I realized that I was missing out on the beauty of the book as a work of art. So I set the annotation down and continued reading Ulysses without help. Yes, there were many parts I failed to understand, but I loved the book nonetheless, and appreciated it as one of the 20th century's greatest pieces of art.

The annotation should serve not as a companion during a first reading of Ulysses, but rather as a reference for future, more detailed readings. As I have read parts of Ulysses again, I have turned to the annotation to guide me and help me understand the intricate details of the book. It is a scholarly endeavor, and one must always remember that Joyce meant to be enigmatic - to enjoy his genius does not necessarily mean to understand every enigma and allusion.

Savor the words of James Joyce, then savor his intellectual cavortings through this marvelous annotation. Do not use the annotation as a crutch to read Ulysses, the greatest novel of the 20th century, but trust your mind to learn his language.

85 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Encyclopedia for reading Joyce's Encyclopedia, December 1, 2000

By	Walter O. Koenig "Amoxtli" (San Diego, California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Ulysses Annotated" is an essential Book for reading, and understanding Ulysses, and the previous four reviewers are right on the mark. It is impossible, even for a well read reader to understand Joyce's allusions without this extremely well presented, and well priced, Reference book.

Introduction, prefaces and notes explain how to use this book, and how it was compiled. Each episode is preceeded by a map of where the action takes place helping the reader to visualize the movements of Bloom and Stephen. Each entry is preceeded by the Chapter Number and Line Number according to the Gabler edition of "Ulysses". In addition, a fairly comprehensive index cross-references all entries. If the reader wants to find all allusions pertaining, for example, to the Book of Luke, these can be easily found. I found this Index quite useful.

Personally, I found the following method best for using the book. First, to skim through the allusions, marking those of particular interest, and then laying the book side by side with the Novel and reading the Episode.

As for realiability, I took Gifford and Seidman up on their offered Short Title List, and was able to find almost every reference, including "Thom's Official Directory of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Ireland for the Year 1904", and have found them to be reliable in their entries.

This Book should suffice for reading, and understanding Ulysses, though many a reader may get caught up by Joyce, as I did, so that the following may be useful: Weldon Thornton: "Allusions in Ulysses", Richard Ellman: "James Joyce", Harry Blamires: "The New Bloomsday Book", Stuart Gilbert: "James Joyce's Ulysses", and of course "The Riverside Shakespeare", "The Oddyssey", and the Bible.

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars notes only!, May 16, 2006

By	J. Hill (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just a heads up that this is NOT an annotated edition of Ulysses (as I mistakenly thought in purchasing)(duh). It is 600-some pages of notes only and does not include the text of the novel.