In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career. For the next sixty years, Campbell moved through the labyrinths of Joyce’s creations - writing and lecturing on Joyce using depth psychology, comparative religion, anthropology, and art history as tools of analysis. Arranged by Joyce scholar Edmund L. Epstein, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words presents a wide range of Campbell’s writing and lectures on Joyce, which together form an illuminating running commentary on Joyce’s masterworks. Campbell’s visceral appreciation for all that was new in Joyce will delight the previously uninitiated, and perhaps intimidated, as well as longtime lovers of both Joyce and Campbell.

Listening Length

12 hours and 31 minutes
Author

Joseph Campbell, see all
Narrator

Braden Wright
Audible release date

May 11, 2018
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B07CZPN5C1
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 31 minutes
Author	Joseph Campbell, Edmund L. Epstein - editor and foreword
Narrator	Braden Wright
Audible.com Release Date	May 11, 2018
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07CZPN5C1
Best Sellers Rank	#72,114 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2,076 in Social Sciences (Audible Books & Originals) #12,823 in Social Sciences (Books)

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4.8 out of 5

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Walter J. Smith

title says it well

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 31, 2014

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With this book's half-a-century-in-the-making, Joseph Campbell draws primarily upon James Joyce's literary art to show us how that writer brought into the late modern world the ancient western teachings of divine practices. If I read this correctly, Campbell saw these teachings (re)emerging through Joyce's mind as Joyce's writing emerged throughout his writing career. A book to be studied, reviewed, and reassessed several times over lest we too easily accept too many antiquities as self-evident truths.

3 people found this helpful

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Harrison Holmes

One of my heros

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2013

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Having been exposed to Campbell many years ago and owning many of his audio recordings, I often give his books to friends who will appreciate his work. And like most of us, I hope to influence the way people think.

2 people found this helpful

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Leatherbags Reynolds

The Campbell Is A-Coming!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 29, 2014

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Great way to begin your Joyce odyssey, as it were. The part on the third chapter of "Ulysses" especially shines and is worth the price of the book.

One person found this helpful

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Leslie

good read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 1, 2015

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could not understand Joyce's Ulysses with out this book....necessary....good read .. very informative for those of you who have or are currently reading Ulysses

2 people found this helpful

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Nicole

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 25, 2013

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My husband absolutely love this book! Campbell's approach made Joyce's writing accessible--now my husband is ready to jump into Ulysses, whereas before he felt daunted. Another incredible contribution by Campbell!

2 people found this helpful

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Edward

Campbell/Joyce

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2014

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Only one thing to say: Joseph Campbell/James Joyce. That tells you everything you need to know about this book.

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Ozzie Mahoney

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2017

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great

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Daniel Scalph

Some of it seems like speculation, but is though provoking nonetheless

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2015

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Interesting essays on Joyce. Some of it seems like speculation, but is though provoking nonetheless.

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Caseysan

Now Ulysses makes sense!

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on August 4, 2020

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I was having the damnedest time reading Ulysses before I got this but now it makes sense. High praise for Joseph Campbell. High praise for this book!

Tariki

For lovers of James Joyce

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 31, 2018

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Long being a lover of biographies, I have read a couple of James Joyce. The human being always comes first ( I seem to have more knowledge of John Keat's life story than knowledge of his actual poetry)

Yet the works of many do follow once I can put flesh to the words. Ulysses comes pretty cheap on Kindle and eventually after a couple of false starts I read through to the end - astonished when I was moved to tears by the long monologue of Molly Bloom and her final YES to life. As Joyce once said:- "If Ulysses is unfit to read then life is not fit to live".

Yet I remained much in the dark about what the book was actually about and I dipped into quite a number of attempts to make it more accessible.

I wish I had found this book by Joseph Campbell sooner. It is by far the best explication of just what Joyce was up to, explaining whole sections, and in a manner than is as simple as possible for such material. Mr Campbell's book also covers Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake. He makes each able to be understood as far as the intent of Joyce is concerned and as with Ulysses, long passages are quoted which gives a true flavour of the complete works.

I have yet to really try Finnegans Wake - one step too far I'm afraid. Perhaps my next step will be to find another biography of James Joyce. I find that to know him more is to admire him more, even to love him more. Mr Campbell at one point even uses the word "saint".

Anyway, this is a fine book and certainly worth reading closely by anyone interested in Modernist Literature.

2 people found this helpful

Mac McAleer

The works of James Joyce explained

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 4, 2014

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Joseph Campbell was famous for his writings on mythology and here he applies that knowledge to the novels of James Joyce, which are famously mythic and at times famously difficult. I found this book very readable and useful as a companion and commentary on the James Joyce novels. This book would only be of interest to those who have some knowledge of James Joyce or are preparing to read him. Those new to Joseph Campbell would be better served by reading other works by him such as The Hero with A Thousand Faces .

I first came across the name Joseph Campbell when reading Into The Woods , a book about how stories work. He was mentioned as an influence on George Lucas when he was creating Star Wars. Christopher Volger had already distilled Joseph Campbell's work for the screenwriting industry. Later I discovered that Joseph Campbell was also an early enthusiast for James Joyce and that his writings about Joyce's work had been collected in this book.

The majority of this book is a discussion of the three novels of James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. The space given to Ulysses is twice that given to The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Finnegan's Wake, This is in proportion to the size of these works (though not to their complexity, which would give most space to Finnegan's Wake, then Ulysses, then The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man). One of the characteristics of Ulysses, as pointed out by Campbell, is that it is too long. This was a deliberate choice by Joyce who regarded the extension of the text as an important feature; it was all about the journey rather than the destination. The amount and length of the direct quotations from Ulysses is surprising. The quotations are not just sentences but also whole paragraphs and at times several pages are quoted.

Reading Joyce always requires some help and this book provides a helpful commentary. I do not know how correct Campbell's interpretations of Joyce are; that is something to be debated and decided by the scholars of Joyce.

2 people found this helpful

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