Book Description
From the internationally bestselling author of
London and
Sarum -- a magnificent epic about love and war, family life and political intrigue in Ireland over the course of seventeen centuries. Like the novels of James Michener,
The Princes of Ireland brilliantly interweaves engrossing fiction and well-researched fact to capture the essence of a place.
Edward Rutherfurd has introduced millions of readers to the human dramas that are the lifeblood of history. From his first bestseller,
Sarum, to the #1 bestseller
London, he has captivated audiences with gripping narratives that follow the fortunes of several fictional families down through the ages.
The Princes of Ireland, a sweeping panorama steeped in the tragedy and glory that is Ireland, epitomizes the power and richness of Rutherfurd’s storytelling magic.
The saga begins in pre-Christian Ireland with a clever refashioning of the legend of Cuchulainn, and culminates in the dramatic founding of the Free Irish State in 1922. Through the interlocking stories of a wonderfully imagined cast of characters -- monks and noblemen, soldiers and rebels, craftswomen and writers -- Rutherfurd vividly conveys the personal passions and shared dreams that shaped the character of the country. He takes readers inside all the major events in Irish history: the reign of the fierce and mighty kings of Tara; the mission of Saint Patrick; the Viking invasion and the founding of Dublin; the trickery of Henry II, which gave England its foothold on the island in 1167; the plantations of the Tudors and the savagery of Cromwell; the flight of the “Wild Geese”; the failed rebellion of 1798; the Great Famine and the Easter Rebellion. With Rutherfurd’s well-crafted storytelling, readers witness the rise of the Fenians in the late nineteenth century, the splendours of the Irish cultural renaissance, and the bloody battles for Irish independence, as though experiencing their momentous impact firsthand.
Tens of millions of North Americans claim Irish descent. Generations of people have been enchanted by Irish literature, and visitors flock to Dublin and its environs year after year.
The Princes of Ireland will appeal to all of them -- and to anyone who relishes epic entertainment spun by a master.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Rutherford's books.......2007-08-06
Rutherford does a great deal of research and manages to weave a lot of real history into a fictional story with finesse. The sequel, "The Rebels of Ireland", taught me more about Ireland's current culture than reading a stack of history books would have done.
Lackluster indeed.......2007-06-16
I had trouble finishing this rather boring history of Ireland. The characters are two dimensional and the whole story lacks connectedness. It was more fits and starts and then a change to a totally different time. It seemed the author was unsure if he was writing a novel or history and tried to cover too much ground at one time.
Formulaic but not bad.......2007-04-08
This is my first read of Edward Rutherford and based on several other reviews of this work, it appears that measured against the standard of his previous work, this one is perhaps not as powerful.
Not having the benefit of those previous reads, I come at this perhaps from a different point of view.
As an amateur historian and genealogist, I came to this work expecting it to give some context and progression toward a better understanding of the history of Ireland and perhaps some insight into the lives and issues of its inhabitants. I was not disappointed in that regard.
In terms of comparison there certainly is a close parallel to the works of James Michener. It also reminded me of some of the works of Morgan Llewellyn, "Lion of Ireland" although, this work doesn't quite capture the reader's imagination in terms of the development of each character.
All that said, this work doesn't quite rise to the levels of the standard-bearers in terms of the genre or the region.
Still, it is not bad. The use of recurring themes, the character continuity across generations and the use of literary devices such as a drinking skulll passed through one of of the families is done reasonably well. Interesting as well for the genealogist. is the development of the character names over time, illustrating the development and change in family names that is typical of the region.
Not 5 star material, but again, not bad. The reader looking to benefit from the reading of this book in terms of their understanding of the history and the region will not be disappointed. The reader looking solely to be entertained, may find it more work than pleasure.
I personally enjoyed it, while recognizing it probably is not Rutherford's best work.
Better Than A Sleeping Pill.......2007-02-08
I've read Sarum, London, & The Forest and really enjoyed them. This book is not nearly as good. It's just plain boring. I kept reading with the hope that the book would improve in the next chapter - needless to say my hopes were dashed! I will probably give his next book a chance, after all, every author should be allowed a "dud" now and then.
Rutherfurd has a particular style..........2007-02-07
I both like and dislike Rutherfurd's style. Having read The Forest, which was decent but not one of my favorite historical novels, I was concerned about Rutherfurd taking on the sweeping history of Ireland, one of my favorite countries. I have to say, however, that he did a wonderful job--he included many things I have studied as well as many things that I had never heard of before. The one complaint I have is that it seemed like whenever I got to the point where I wanted to know more about the characters, he moved tens or even hundreds of years into the future, leaving me just a bit disappointed that I did not hear the whole of said characters' stories. I understood from reading The Forest that this was his writing style, but at the same time, that is the reason I could not give this novel five stars.
Book Description
The reigning master of grand historical fiction returns with the stirring conclusion to his bestselling Dublin Saga.
The Princes of Ireland, the first volume of Edward Rutherfurd’s magisterial epic of Irish history, ended with the disastrous Irish revolt of 1534 and the disappearance of the sacred Staff of Saint Patrick. The Rebels of Ireland opens with an Ireland transformed; plantation, the final step in the centuries-long English conquest of Ireland, is the order of the day, and the subjugation of the native Irish Catholic population has begun in earnest.
Edward Rutherfurd brings history to life through the tales of families whose fates rise and fall in each generation: Brothers who must choose between fidelity to their ancient faith or the security of their families; a wife whose passion for a charismatic Irish chieftain threatens her comfortable marriage to a prosperous merchant; a young scholar whose secret rebel sympathies are put to the test; men who risk their lives and their children’s fortunes in the tragic pursuit of freedom, and those determined to root them out forever. Rutherfurd spins the saga of Ireland’s 400-year path to independence in all its drama, tragedy, and glory through the stories of people from all strata of society--Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.
His richly detailed narrative brings to life watershed moments and events, from the time of plantation settlements to the “Flight of the Earls,” when the native aristocracy fled the island, to Cromwell’s suppression of the population and the imposition of the harsh anti-Catholic penal laws. He describes the hardships of ordinary people and the romantic, doomed attempt to overthrow the Protestant oppressors, which ended in defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and the departure of the “Wild Geese.” In vivid tones Rutherfurd re-creates Grattan’s Parliament, Wolfe Tone's attempted French invasion of 1798, the tragic rising of Robert Emmet, the Catholic campaign of Daniel O’Connell, the catastrophic famine, the mass migration to America, and the glorious Irish Renaissance of Yeats and Joyce. And through the eyes of his characters, he captures the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell and the great Irish nationalists and the birth of an Ireland free of all ties to England.
A tale of fierce battles, hot-blooded romances, and family and political intrigues, The Rebels of Ireland brings the story begun in The Princes of Ireland to a stunning conclusion.
Customer Reviews:
Title clarifications.......2007-09-29
Confusing titles of the same books, led me to Rutherfurd's website under News. Outside of North America PRINCES OF IRELAND is titled DUBLIN: FOUNDATION and REBELS OF IRELAND is titled IRELAND AWAKENING. Now I can enjoy the correct sequel!
the reader.......2007-08-12
I have read all of Edward Rutherfurd's books in this series. I have not started to read the Rebels as yet. I will have time off soon and that will be a pleasure then.
Great stories, but too long!.......2007-07-31
Edward Rutherfurd is a great story teller of individual lives and of history, and he does a good job of mixing the two in `The Rebels of Ireland'. The folks seem real, and the stories twist and turn enough and are bizarre enough in many cases to seem real; you can seldom guess how things are going to turn out in the great flow of Irish history. I think he is better at character development and interaction than the esteemed James Michener and on the same level as Jeff Shaara, whom I especially admire as a historical novelist. I kept thinking what a good movie this would make; but let's face it, the movie would be a few generations too long. In fact, that is my only criticism of the book: there were perhaps too many stories being told, to the point that the book approached the size of Tolstoy's `War and Peace'.
The book is about the confluence of the Reformation and British colonialism and the years that follow, roughly paralleling the American story, except that the Americans rebelled earlier and more successfully than the Irish. (Of course, the Americans had the advantage of being an ocean away from England.) It seemed that the ordinary person was at the whim of whatever was being cooked up in the British parliament and that Ireland was more or less a vassal of England. As you learn in the first book of this two-book series, `The Princes of Ireland', the Brits were better organized than the Irish and simply took over the island centuries before the Reformation. After the 16th century, a strong division developed between Catholics and Protestants, Ireland being basically identified with the Catholics and England being basically Protestant. The book proceeds until just after Michael Collins and the takeover of the Dublin General Post Office in 1916.
It was a good book, but it was just a tad too long for me.
Irish History Comes to Life!.......2007-06-30
After having read Rutherford's earlier volume in this Historical Fiction series, I was anticipating a good solid effort that would provide an entertaining read with the added bonus of some grounding in Irish History. This book provided all of this and for me, actually raised the bar from the previous effort, The Princes of Ireland.
Intricately woven through several generations with effective literary devices maintaining the thread and providing strong story lines which keep the reader tied to the plot despite the span of years and movement through multiple historical contexts, this work succeeds better than most of the genre. You will leave with a stonger understanding of Irish History and appreciation of what it must have been like to have lived through those days.
Broad in appeal, this work will appeal to those looking for good strong historical fiction, a better appreciation of Irish History are a better connection to their own Irish Roots.
Wonderful Book About the Irish "Troubles".......2007-04-30
As other reviewers say this is a wonderful history lesson detailing the history of the conflict between Irish Catholics and Protestants. It starts about 1400 and goes to the beginning of the 20th century. I do have one nit to pick and that is that most of the characters are of the "well-to-do" class. They are fleshed out and good characters but, if one read only this book, one would hardly believe there was any poverty in Ireland. I recently read a book called "Wind and Shadow" by Carraher in which he writes of Ellen, a farm girl (the book starts in 1946 after WWII) and talks of all the people who must leave Ireland because there is no chance of making a living there. Carraher is speaking of a life (Ellen's) "outside of the great events of History". But isn't that the lives of most of us, those of us who don't make it into history books? So perhaps, with E. Rutherfurd concerned more about historical events than not, he had to write about members of the upper class who were more involved in parliaments and decision making. Still it is a lacking in this book that the "average" Irish man/woman is not really present. But the book, despite that, achieves much. It is heartwarming in spots, quite dramatic in others, and educational overall. Who knew that Benjamin Franklin visited Ireland just prior to the American Revolution? "Irish Rebels" is overall a wonderful achievement.
Average customer rating:
- Ulysses, great or not ?
- ULYSSES is Joyce's Retelling of the Homerian Epic . Massive, Maddening, Enigmatic and Priceless
- A REAL FAILURE AS A NOVEL
- Classic of Modern Literature
- Well, it's a classic, it once earned deserved praise as new & original but...
|
Ulysses
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| Classics
| Contemporary
| General
| Historical
| Humor
| Letters & Correspondence
| Middle
| Old
| Poetry
| Renaissance
| Shakespeare
| Short Stories
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Ulysses Annotated
-
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics)
-
Finnegans Wake (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
-
The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses
-
Dubliners (Oxford World's Classics)
ASIN: 0679722769
Release Date: 1990-06-16 |
Amazon.com
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.
Among other things, a novel is simply a long story, and the first question about any story is: What happens?. In the case of Ulysses, the answer might be Everything. William Blake, one of literature's sublime myopics, saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.
Both characters add their glorious intonations to the music of Joyce's prose. Dedalus's accent--that of a freelance aesthetician, who dabbles here and there in what we might call Early Yeats Lite--will be familiar to readers of Portrait of an Artist As a Young Man. But Bloom's wistful sensualism (and naive curiosity) is something else entirely. Seen through his eyes, a rundown corner of a Dublin graveyard is a figure for hope and hopelessness, mortality and dogged survival: "Mr Bloom walked unheeded along his grove by saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands. More sensible to spend the money on some charity for the living. Pray for the repose of the soul of. Does anybody really?" --James Marcus
Book Description
This revised volume follows the complete unabridged text as corrected in 1961. Contains the original foreword by the author and the historic court ruling to remove the federal ban. It also contains page references to the first American edition of 1934.
Download Description
The 1934 text, as corrected and reset in 1961. Ulysses is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. It was not easy to find a publisher in America willing to take it on, and when Jane Jeap and Margaret Anderson started printing extracts from the book their literary magazine The Little Review in 1918, they were arrested and charged with publishing obscenity. They were fined $100, and even The New York Times expressed satisfaction with their conviction. Ulysses was not published in book form until 1922, when another American woman, Sylvia Beach, published it in Paris for her Shakespeare & Company. Ulysses was not available legally in any English-speaking country until 1934, when Random House successfully defended Joyce against obscenity charges and published it in the Modern Library. This edition follows the complete and unabridged text as corrected and reset in 1961. Judge John Woolsey's decision lifting the ban against Ulysses is reprinted, along with a letter from Joyce to Bennett Cerf, the publisher of Random House, and the original foreword to the book by Morris L. Ernst, who defended Ulysses during the trial.
Customer Reviews:
Ulysses, great or not ?.......2007-09-20
Probably every avid reader feels compelled at some time in life to read "Ulysses", especially as it was voted the best work of fiction of the 20th century at the turn of this millenium.
The style of writing throughout the book is usually referred to as "stream of consciousness". This method has been subsequently employed in other works such as "To The Lighthouse" and "The sound and the Fury". However, in my opinion, these latter two works used the style much more succesfully than Joyce.
If you are currently reading "Ulysses" at the moment, expect a very patchy book. The second half is , in general, better than the first half, with the two penultimate chapters "Cabman's shelter" and "Ithaca" standing out from the rest. After that, the description of birth in "Oxen in the sun" is also excellent , as is the part dsecribing Paddy Dignam's funeral early in the book. As to the rest of the book, I believe there is little to recommend it.
Opinion tends to be polarized about "Ulysses" . Its severest critics suggest that it is only praised by those who are scared to be criticized for not understanding the book, a sort of "emperor's new clothes" scenario. There is, however, more than a grain of truth in this opinion. It does seem incredible that a book with so much "padding" could be so highly thought of. It might have made a very good book of around 200 pages, but one does have the sensation that Joyce is taking his readers for a ride in many parts. ( Of course, his ultimate send up of his readers was "Finnegan's Wake"! ). Furthermore, the much lauded sense of humour is overblown. At best, this is a mildly amusing book with one or two laugh out loud lines. To label it as "very funny" is pretentiousness itself. Most of the humour is also of the "toilet" variety.
On the positive side, there are some interesting passages as mentioned above. However, the main interest lies in seeing this new attempt at a style of writing , and to try to fathom out why this book has become the "darling" of the ( maybe "so-called" ) intellectuals. If you want to see a better example of joyce's talents, try "Potrait Of The Artist As A Young Man", or even "The Dubliners".
ULYSSES is Joyce's Retelling of the Homerian Epic . Massive, Maddening, Enigmatic and Priceless.......2007-09-13
James Joyce (1882-1941) was a tormented Roman Catholic who forsook his faith, picked up his pen and wrote the great novel "Ulysses" based on the epic poem "The Odyssey" by Homer. It is impossible to explain Ulysses or give it an adequate review in the short space alloted this reviewer. Howwver, I would offer the following thoughts for those brave souls eager to enter the labyrinthal complexities of a genius's mind:
Joyce tells the story of one day in the life of the people of Dublin, Ireland on June 16, 1904 (the day he first met his wife Nora Baracle). As he does so in eighteen chapters linked with similar episodes in "The Odyssey." During the day (about 900 pages) we follow the two chief characters on their peregrinations and adventures. Those characters are:
Stephen Dedalus-Named for the Greek mytholgical figure Dedalus who builds wings to fly in the sky; his son Icarus flies too close to the sun and perishes while Dedalus lands in Sicily. Stephen was the chief character in Joyce's "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." He is tormented by his failure to pray at his dying mother's bedside; tormented by the Roman Catholic Church's burden of guilt laid upon his soul. Stephen is an aspiring author. He is ambivalent in his feelings toward his native Ireland. As the novel begins he is living in the English built castle
The Martello Tower along with his friend Buck Mulligan and an Englishman named Haines. Stephen is a teacher who is supervised by the horrible Deasy a West Englishman who in an Orange Protestant. Deasy is a false Nestor to the callow Stephen. Stephen is an intellectual with biographical correspondence to the author James Joyce.
Leopold Bloom-A 38 year old advertising man who is married to the sensuous Molly. Bloom is a middlebrow who roams the streets of Dublin plying his advertising career engaging in arguments, dreaming about a sexy young thing on the beach and saving Stephen from trouble in the famous Nighttime section of the book. Leopold does not practice his Judaism. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. The novel ends with Bloom returning home to his unfaithful wife Molly just as Odysseus returned home to his faithful wife Penelope in the Homeric epic. Bloomsday is celebrated worldwide on Feb. 2 each year (the date of Joyce's birth in 1882).
c. Molly Bloom-Her nearly fifty pages of stream of consciousness prose was until recently the longest sentence in the English language. She is a coarse, bawdy, serially cheating wife to Bloom.
I do not claim to understand everything going on in Ulysses. Joyce said it would take the professors and critics centuries to explore its rich minefield of literary allusions, jokes, and analysis of the human condition. Ulysses has been banned and blasted by literary critics as the same time it has been praised. You may find out yourself by giving it a close reading with a good commentary handy. Joyce plums the depths of the human mind. He is a great Irish genius whose work demands study.
A REAL FAILURE AS A NOVEL .......2007-08-03
As a devout modernist, I put off the pleasure of reading this book for years. I wanted to have the time and leisure to give it proper attention. I had taken a seminar with Anthony Burgess on ULYSSES at CCNY in the early seventies. We did a close reading of the Nighttown chapter and were supposed to read the rest of the novel on our own. I never did. But Burgess' enthusiasm was impressive and though I wasn't entirely convinced, I was certainly intrigued. In earlier years I had read DUBLINERS and PORTRAIT and even some of FINNEGANS WAKE and was especially impressed by Joyce's mastery of language and the poetic quality of his prose.
An early retirement offer finally had me reading the "GREATEST NOVEL OF THE 20th CENTURY" last month in Riverside Park. Some nice cigars added to the mix.
The first few chapters were stunning. The powers of description, the playfulness and musicality of language, the wit and intelligence of Stephen and Buck were a delight. I was obviously in the hands of a master. Shakespeare even came to mind.
But then something happened. The humanity and poetry seemed to drain out of the thing as we were treated to yet another chapter of theoretical "experimentation in narrative technique". The idea of writing a novel, each chapter of which is written in a parodistic or borrowed style seems to me a doomed one. (And more postmodernist than modernist). Apparently even Ezra Pound objected. I found myself asking, "Couldn't Joyce have found his own voice and style to narrate this section?" An entire narrative chapter in the question and answer form of a Catholic Catechism seems affected at first. After thirty pages it is deadly and even embarrassing. And then another in the style of a men's sporting magazine, and then another in the style of a women's magazine? What's the point? (Other than showing off?) And the Freudian/Surrealist kitsch of the endless Nighttown chapter was downright infantile. Talk about dated! This is novel writing from the outside in. First you have an "experimental" concept and then you fit in some narrative stuff. It's no wonder academics use this book as major fodder. It seems to be written with them in mind.
Likewise the useless tie ins with Homer's ODYSSEY. One can't help thinking of them as a desperate attempt to add structure, incident and theme to a book fairly bereft of them. Not to mention adding a bit of literary pedigree to offset the "obscenity".
Which brings me to my last point. The fancy smorgasbord of styles cannot disguise that as a novel, ULYSSES is sorely lacking. All the criteria by which we judge a novel - character depth and development, involving narrative, thematic focus, depth of feeling etc., seem totally absent. Basically what we have here is a brief Balzacian "realist" sketch, padded out and styled-up beyond belief.
Now this is really a minority opinion: not only is ULYSSES a failure, but the reason I think it is a failure is that it is a transitional work. Joyce was obviously bored with novelistic narrative but still felt obliged to accommodate. With FINNEGANS WAKE, he hit stride and finally found his métier - a book as a place to play with language and psyche for his own pleasure, without regard for traditional novelistics.
A NOTE ON EDITIONS: The huge academic controversy about which edition of ULYSSES is "authentic" or "correct" is, as one might expect, much ado about very little. Serious textual issues are minimal. Most of the typos in the 1922 edition were corrected in 1960/1 by the editors of the Modern Library in consultation with Richard Ellmann. That text was also used for the Bodley Head and current Everyman editions. Gabler later went overboard, making some highly questionable decisions. His edition is also difficult to read due to small print, layout, line-numbering etc. Danis Rose's edition went even further and "corrected" Joyce's compound words etc. - a disgrace.
I ended up reading an online version edited by Jorn Barger - a very sensible amalgam of the best work of previous editors. It took some time and expense to print out, but it was definitely worth it.
Classic of Modern Literature.......2007-07-23
While this text is undoubtedly one of the most difficult that I have read, the sheer skill at manipulating language that Joyce demonstrates is remarkable. The result is a novel that offers a most intimate study into the human method of thinking.
Not for the faint of heart, however, because this is a text that requires dedication, as the games that Joyce plays with language and the thinking of his characters often obfuscates the meaning.
Well, it's a classic, it once earned deserved praise as new & original but..........2007-07-10
Many scenes stick in one's mind forever, for example when Leopold Bloom releases his bowels or when the coffin falls on the road. I finally came to understand the stream-of-consciousness technique and realized it's not Joyce's stream we're wading in but the carefully reproduced stream of the character's consciousness. I found this particularly effective and fun reading of Stephen Dedalus's morning at school. Other scenes like Molly Bloom's grand finale are simply beautiful and literally breathless, especially if you take punctuation as a breathing signal.
And I'm especially glad to read it now that I live in Dublin. I've lived in Ringsend three months, I've visited a friend in Mullingar, and I've shopped at Buckley's butcher shop, all of which are mentioned in Ulysses. I even bought my copy of the book at the Martello tower featured at the start of the novel.
But overall, one feels Ulysses is somewhat contrived. Crucify this humble critic if you will, but reproducing the structure of the Odyssey is a clever but artificial way of bringing epic grandeur to what is nothing more than a very ordinary day. Why go through all that trouble? I do agree with the lesson but find it rather long winded. In painting, a still life by Chardin is as realistic as an imperial coronation scene by David, but with much less fuss.
And then there are the inside jokes. References to Walt Whitman and to Edgar Allen Poe (which I got only because I remembered Tom Hanks reciting Poe's "To Helen" in The Ladykillers) and other writers abound. Shouldn't a great work stand on its own, at least where its intended audience is concerned? Ulysses fails utterly in this respect unless we restrict the audience to academics.
Vincent Poirier, Dublin
Book Description
Molly Murphy, Rhys Bowens plucky P.I. in 1903 New York, sails back to her native Ireland on a case searching for the sister of an Irish-American impresario. She was too sick to travel and was left behind when the family took a famine ship to New York fifty years ago, and now the man wants to settle his fortune on her. But before the ship reaches Ireland, her maid is found murdered and a famous Irish actress goes missing. Molly is shocked to discover a cache of rifles in the actresss luggage, and even more shocked to come upon her own brother trying to collect the bags in Dublinnow mixed up in the freedom movement, in which Molly herself becomes unwillingly embroiled. And someone else seems to be on the trail of the missing womansomeone who wants to make sure Molly never finds her....
Customer Reviews:
In Dublin's Fair City.......2007-08-18
OK, more of a romance/mystery. Not very exciting, but was intriguing. It will be interesting to see her next book.
a tiny bit disappointing.......2007-08-06
I love Molly Murphey, but I thought this one wasn't quite on par with the previous books in the series. It was still good, and enjoyable to spend time with Molly, as always, but I had been trying to get my mother interested in the series and she chose this one at her library. She didn't care for it and now, disappointingly, she says she won't read any of the others in the series.
Sixth in the series.......2007-07-13
The first of this series was "Murphy's Law." Each book seems to me to be better than the last. My suggestion is to get all six, arrange them in order, and go on a reading binge. Although this book takes place in Ireland, most of this series takes place in turn of the century New York...a wonderful setting for historical novels. If you like historical mysteries, you will like these.
An Irish mystery at sea.......2007-05-30
IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY is the latest book in Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy mystery series. The book's heroine, a private investigator, is an Irish immigrant living in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. She is an independent and clever young woman with a secret --- and a knack for solving mysteries. Because of her reputation as a successful "lady detective," she is sought out by Tommy Burke.
Burke is an Irish immigrant who, decades earlier, survived passage on a famine ship and arrived in the United States with nothing. Now a self-described "self-made man" with lots of money but no children, Burke recently learned from his mother --- on her deathbed ---that he may have a sister back in Ireland. Mary Ann was left behind because she was too sick to make the voyage to America. When Molly accepts Burke's assignment to return to her native land and search for Mary Ann, the story --- and Molly's adventure --- begins.
Shortly after Molly boards the Majestic ocean liner and settles in her second-class cabin, a steward delivers a note from the beautiful Irish-American Broadway actress, Oona Sheehan, who is a friend of Burke's. In the note Oona invites Molly to her first-class cabin, where she has "a matter to discuss."
To safeguard her privacy during the voyage, Oona asks Molly to trade places with her, and she gives Molly a check for $100 for her trouble. In exchange, Molly agrees not to leave Oona's cabin, except in rare instances, and only when disguised as the actress. Molly, Oona and the maid, Rose, are the only ones in on the deception.
The ruse appears to work, but after several days at sea, Molly grows tired of being cooped up in Oona's cabin. The night before the ship docks, Molly learns about a costume ball, which she decides to attend disguised as Marie Antoinette. After returning to the first-class cabin, Molly discovers Rose's body. Molly summons the ship's authorities, who become skeptical when she explains why she is occupying Oona's cabin, especially after they determine that the actress is not aboard the ship. To prove her innocence, Molly relies on her wits and detection skills.
Rose's death and the actress's mysterious disappearance are only the beginning of Molly's troubles. Ashore in Ireland, her search for Mary Ann Burke turns up one dead end after another. Complicating matters, Molly keeps bumping into men from the ship and is sure one of them means her harm.
Then there's the matter of Oona's luggage, which Molly has been instructed to safeguard until it is picked up. After Molly accidentally opens one of the cases, she discovers a hidden cache of weapons that she assumes are destined for the freedom fighters. Even more shocking is the appearance of Molly's brother, Liam, who comes to collect the baggage and then flees after Molly calls out to him.
Despite disappointing setbacks, and more encounters from the Irish underground, Molly continues her search for Mary Ann, but the secret she thought was buried when she fled Ireland continues to haunt her. As she becomes entangled with the freedom fighters, Molly is called upon to make a decision that could jeopardize her life, as well as the lives of her loved ones.
The engaging character of Molly Murphy, the turn-of-the-20th-century setting and descriptions, and the cameo appearances of some famous Irishmen --- including James Joyce and Oscar Wilde --- make IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY an entertaining read.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt
Molly goes home and grows up.......2007-04-16
In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Bowen is the most recent book in the Molly Murphy mystery series. As often happens within a long-running series, Bowen removes Molly from her familiar environs to create new crises and advance character development. This works very well with Molly Murphy who returns home to Ireland to investigate a long-lost sister of a wealthy Irish-American theater producer. Molly needs the opportunity to get out of New York for awhile and reevaluate her feelings for her off-and-on paramour Daniel Sullivan. So she jumps at the opportunity to return to her homeland, and instead finds herself in the middle of a missing actress, a murdered maid, and the Irish movement for independence. Bowen juggles the multiple stories remarkably well and manages to ties them all together in an almost completely believable way. I love Molly's foibles and her refusal to be treated as second class. She realizes that she's not much of a detective but never gives up. She's one of the most realistic, truly human characters in cozy mysteries today. This was a fantastic read, one of those books that's hard to put down, but when I was done and preparing the review a few holes in the plausibility started showing. So it's one of those books to read and enjoy, and don't spend a lot of time thinking about later. But don't miss it, Molly Murphy (and Rhys Bowen) are truly a joy to read.
Book Description
A society hostess invites her husband’s mistress to dinner. A country girl savours the delights of city life. A student faces the dilemma of unmarried pregnancy. A drink-ridden photographer tries to relaunch a shattered career.
Dublin 4 has all of Maeve Binchy’s intimate grasp of human feelings, her marvellous ear for dialogue and her subtle sense of life’s confusion. The stories bubble with fun and wit — yet sometimes leave a taste of sadness.
Customer Reviews:
Vintage Binchey.......2000-12-07
This collection of short stories is Maeve Binchy at her best. Comprised of tales of various residents of Dublin, the betrayed housewife, the young girl on her own, or the older single girl embarking on losing her virginity....Binchey manages to weave an engaging tapestry of life. The stories move at a quick pace, are character driven and leave you wanting to know more about the people and how their lives continued...a great book to read and reread.
Small but satisfying doses of Binchy.......1998-10-20
As usual, Maeve Binchy has captured my full attention! After each short story, I felt as if I just finished a complete novel. All the details were there, the characters nicely developed. The endings could have been a little more conclusive, but by no means was I left thinking, "And...?" Bravo for Maeve Binchy! I can't wait for her next release.
Average customer rating:
- A beautiful edition of one of the most important books ever written
- Truth meets beauty
- Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish
- It's the whole pie with jam in.
- The book for a serious reader of Joyce
|
Ulysses: A Facsimile of the First Edition Published in Paris in 1922
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Orchises Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| Classics
| Contemporary
| General
| Historical
| Humor
| Letters & Correspondence
| Middle
| Old
| Poetry
| Renaissance
| Shakespeare
| Short Stories
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Hardcover
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Ulysses Annotated
-
Bloom
-
Ulysses (Naxos AudioBooks)
-
Ulysses (Cliffs Notes)
-
Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics)
ASIN: 0914061704 |
Customer Reviews:
A beautiful edition of one of the most important books ever written.......2007-09-17
James Joyce's Ulysses closely parallels the events of Homer's The Odyssey, but this journey is far more surreal than Homer could have ever dreamt. The story is set in one day, and mostly follows the principal character Leopold Bloom going through the day.
Ulysses does not follow typical conventions of literature, and therein lies its beauty and its freedom. The text is littered with puns and seemingly nonsensical and comical language, one of the highlights being the section written as a play in which all manner of chaos takes place. This text may at first appear to be senseless but perseverence will reward those who would spend time examining its language, which is often made up of multiple words, each constituent part of which relates to a wider topic. This is, in a sense, a scholalry text, as it is so much more than a story, and you need to have the willingness to at least attempt to understand the broader referential context, much of which I am also working on. If that seems like too much hard work, then I doubt Ulysses would provide much enjoyment to you, although that's not to say it can't be read without additional knowledge. It does help to know some of the things going on in Joyce's mind and the history/culture of his beloved Ireland.
The version being reviewed here is by Orchises Press, which is a fantastic reproduction of the very first edition of Ulysses printed by Shakespeare and Company. The binding is quite tight and the print quality superb. There is also plenty of space for literary scholars to scribble notes. As it is a sturdy edition, this is built to last. There is no introduction to the text or any essays, and some may prefer this. For first time readers, it can be better to read the text without any preconceptions, just like people who would have read it when it was first published. The cloth cover on this edition, as others have commented, appears a little greener than the original, but most surviving originals have aged to appear exactly like this anyway. As it so closely resembles a vintage copy, it is a very exciting prospect to read Ulysses in the same way its principal adoptors did in the early 1920s. As it is not a vintage copy, you do not need to worry about being ever so careful. Of course, it is still expensive and it is best to treat it with care, but if you had a 1922 copy, you would probably keep it in a cabinet, trying not to disturb its delicate state. For owners of the original who would love to read their vintage copy, but too afraid to, this may be a great solution. Ordering this from the UK from Amazon, it took about three weeks to arrive here from the US, and it was a really terrific moment when it arrived, removing the clingfilm and starting reading it. It is, as a side note, quite a shame that UK readers do not favour hardback editions of books. It is quite difficult to buy new editions of classic books on hardback, unless of course, you turn to the second hand market. It is just a shame that the UK does not seem to appreciate premeire hardback editions of classic texts. oh well...
In many ways the Orchises Press version suits both collectors and serious readers. Of course, it is more expensive than the paperback version, and recommended only to real enthusiasts. For me, this is a definitive edition because literary essays, introductions and annotations mean very little to me, as I like to derive my own impressions by reading and do my own research on specific things. As an MA Comparative Literature student interested in Joyce, I feel this edition can be used for serious research without the supplementary scholarly material because it leaves you free to have just the text and your impressions.
If this edition proves too dear, I believe the Modern Library (or was it Everyman's Luibrary) have an edition currently in print and should be available to order from most retail bookstores. I saw a copy in my local Borders for £13.99, and if you are considering getting a decent hardback edition, perhaps you could go for that edition, as the Modern Library has an excellent range of titles and deserves to be supported.
To conclude, Joyce had an extraordinary imagination and wonderful command of the English language. He is a master of the English language and this is one of his most captivating work. Personally I prefer Finnegans Wake because if you persevere with it, past the first 100 pages, you find some side-splittingly humourous puns. In any case, I will leave my fondness for Finnegans Wake for another review. For now, grab a copy of Ulysses and enter the bizarre world of Joyce where the ordinary mundane things become surreal adventures, and language becomes so unfamiliar that it begins to start making sense again.
Truth meets beauty.......2007-08-03
A truly old-fashioned piece of craftsmanship of what's considered by many to be the best work of English fiction ever. As mentioned in the front matter, "...this book reproduces, as closely as offset printing will allow, Roger Lathbury's copy of the first edition of Ulysses published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1922. Broken type, signature numbers, and the colophon have been left as printed." Editorial slip-ups are obviously included.
This is the perfect birthday gift for any fan of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom. The book is hardback, elegant, nicely bound, and a calm pleasure to hold and read. The book is also ideal for someone just coming to Ulysses: (Many current editions are distractingly tacky). Also, for both new and confirmed readers of Joyce, Stuart Gilbert's exegetical book, James Joyce's Ulysses, and Joseph Campbell's six audio cassette lectures on James Joyce, Wings of Art, are the perfect complements to this novel.
Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish.......2007-05-19
The three previous reviews are right on: to my mind (and I confess that I am not unique in this) Ulysses is the greatest novel in world literature. It is unrivalled in style (who could rival it?) or in character. And who is not moved by the pathos and humor of the book, the sorrows and triumphs of L Boom? This lovely edition befits the novel itself. You may want to read and re-read and take notes in "corrected" editions. This is the one to stare at lovingly, longingly.
It's the whole pie with jam in........2007-02-20
Let's not mince words: Ulysses is one of the highest achievements of literary modernism. But it is also a book that must be read again and again (and again) if it is to be understood and enjoyed. Why buy a pulpy and cheaply made edition that falls to pieces on the second read? The Orchises edition, as a physical artefact, is not only aesthetically worthy of the text it presents (including the generous white space framing the text itself)--it also has the durability and weight you'd normally expect from a Bible.
Other reviewers have detailed how this book is a faithful facsimile of the 1922 editions. The only other thing I would add is that this is the edition whose colour scheme Joyce himself oversaw: The white text and blue background of the cover symbolise the pentelic marble of Greece and the greenblue of the Mediterranean respectively (which are also the colours of the Greek flag).
I thoroughly recommend this beautiful book for anyone who is serious about Ulysses.
The book for a serious reader of Joyce.......2001-04-19
The Orchises Press edition stands out for three reasons. The first is that it reproduces--with impressive attention to detail--the first edition of Joyce's novel. The second reason is that the large, widemargined pages add the pleasure of reading to the pleasure of reading Ulysses (there is something missing, after all, in the insubstantial, tinytype levity of the paperback editions). Finally, the weight of the paper, the strength of the binding makes this edition one that will last (and you will not, as with the paperback editions, be forced to transcripe all your notes from a book that falls apart after three readings). For those who seek the "authenticity" of a first edition, who admire Joyce or who will be studying the novel for years to come, this is the edition to buy.
Book Description
February the fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me...I can only assume the two events weren't entirely unrelated.
Claire has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores, a great apartment, a good job. Then, on the day she gives birth to their first baby, James informs her that he's leaving her. Claire is left with a newborn daughter, a broken heart, and a postpartum body that she can hardly bear to look at.
She decides to go home to Dublin. And there, sheltered by the love of a quirky family, she gets better. So much so, in fact, that when James slithers back into her life, he's in for a bit of a surprise.
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Story.......2007-10-04
I think that Marian Keyes is the most humorous and interesting authors out there on the market today. In "Watermelon" she not only gave me a trip to Limerick and a visit to an Irish family and all the love, disappointments and values that go with this family of characters, but I got a wonderful story and a terrific read. Highly recommend.
Looking for a stunning Women's Fiction then check out Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. The author heralds the relationship between husband and wife in this romance with a bit of mystery novel. In this warm and wonderful story you will travel with Zoie Baker, the heroine, on her quest to build a swimming pool by gathering aluminum cans. She feels right down to her bones that this is her destiny. Unique cans that she stumbles on, i.e., Nehi, Mountain Dew, etc., takes the reader on a glorious journey in the life of Zoie from World War II where she meets Nat, a Marine, at a USO Club, through the 1980's. This gripping story will keep you up to read just one more chapter. Check it out. You won't be disappointed! Bye
A Favorite, but not an All-Time Favorite. . ........2007-10-02
In keeping with my recent ambition to re-read many books that I've dubbed "favorites" over the years, I picked up Watermelon for the first time since I originally read the book about seven or eight years ago. I felt it was about time to let some of my favorite books re-prove themselves to me that they could be, years later, indeed worthy of such titles. And Watermelon just happened to be next on my list.
In reading Watermelon for a second time, I immediately fell in love with the first chapter all over again. It was sharp, quick, and funny. Claire seemed like someone you'd want to get to know and her story seemed like one I'd want to listen to. Many parts of the book were very funny and there were certain quotes and thoughts about life that I found myself nodding at and remembering back from the first time that I had read them years ago.
However, during the journey back through the book, I wavered between liking Claire and hating her. Towards the middle, I wanted to smack her and at certain times right before the book was resolved, I really couldn't bring myself to understand her nativity. I guess when I was in my teens I could accept a little more how she might let her ex-husband try to manipulate her. And I guess I'm happy to say that in my 20s, I am not so willing to let her off the hook for lacking some serious self-respect.
That isn't to say that I didn't like Watermelon, because I really did and, to be honest, I still do. But I don't LOVE it in the way I think I remember I once did. The story was fun to follow, but way too long; some of those middle chapters (and certainly the ones that didn't have to do with Adam) dragged on forever. And the Adam character still seems too dreamy to believe. I think my teenage self definitely believed a little too much that a character like that could just appear in someone's life, and my older self just wants to shake my head. (Not that the idea is impossible, but let's admit the fact that it's just not incredibly likely that one's marriage would completely fall apart and one would meet/fall in love with the most perfect dreamy guy in less than four months!) However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading about and imagining just how pretty and perfect he seemed. We all need a bit of that sometimes - myself definitely included!
All that being said, I found that while I had always referred to Watermelon as one of my favorite books, I very much failed to take into consideration just how many books I'd be reading in the coming decade. I've read probably hundreds of books since I had first read the first of Keyes' novels to be printed in America. Now Watermelon, which at some point might have fit in my top 10 or top 20, might now be more likely to fit into my top 50 or top 100 if I were to make a list that large. And it would certainly make those lists. I feel at this point (years later) that I'd want to read some of Keyes' other books now that I have Claire's other sisters (like Helen) fresh in my mind. I think it would be fun to see how Keyes' other books tie in the same family. (Note: I had read Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married which was okay, and half of Rachel's Holiday, which I embarrassingly admit I never finished, in the immediate years following my first Watermelon read).
So the verdict has come down that Watermelon is certainly a book that I look upon favorably and with appreciation, but no longer an all-time favorite. And I'm okay with that. I do have a lot of respect for Marian Keyes and my mission now becomes finding a book of hers that I love as much as my teenage self once loved Watermelon.
Wishy Washy Woman with no wits about her!.......2007-09-28
I'm not too sure where I stand with this novel. It was a slow read for me, but it was still good. It's about a woman who married a conniving adulterer. He leaves her the day she has their baby, Kate, for a woman he had been sleeping with during the pregnancy. That really made me furious....but what really made me mad was how the main character handled her jerk of a husband when he finally changes his mind and comes back....I had to skim through this part b/c I was so frustrated.
I think it was a good summer read, but I think I wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't a pick of someone else's in my book club.
I'm not a big fan of dry senses of humor...but the other man in the story...ADAM seemed to be a hunk....and that story line I kept trying to get to!!
So, there were good parts, and a lot of bad parts....but at least it made me feel some kind of emotion that I think was intended. I think this was a first published book for this author...so I've been told that she has gotten better.
watermelon.......2007-06-08
Well, I just loved this book. Yes, after a while it's pretty clear how it will all work out, but sometimes we need an obvious happy ending to a book or movie to lift our spirits. Not to mention Marian Keyes is an amazing author.
New baby, wayward husband, crazy family..........2007-06-07
Claire really has it all! This is a nice beach reading book. Our heroine is very sympathetic, her family is as eccentric as they are well-meaning, and her spirit will NOT be defeated by any of it.
Customer Reviews:
Greatest book ever written.......2007-06-14
Unbelievably complex book; possibly the last book you ever have to read & understand. Take 3 years to work on this masterpiece. A good grasp of Celtic and British history essential to its full appreciation. The story of creation, the theory of cultural evolution of civilization, the history & mythology of the Celtic people...what more could you possibly want?
A" wanderous", obscure book; "reveiling" the night: Proceed with Caution!.......2007-06-01
I'd like to address some of these other critical reviews, thought by thought, as most are intelligent people who are asking all the right questions but cannot accept the answers they are coming up with. Your right FW is not "readable", in the normal sense. If you must have a good, solid story, a "page turner", which entertains you and that you finally "get", a story where the meaning is clear: then STOP right now. This book is not any of those things. Its "intention" is to disorient and confuse, to produce an "aesthetic arrest" and to be an epiphany. FW will never be a blockbuster movie, Hollywood will not touch this. Finn again A WAKE is written, kind of, sort of, in english. One reviewer called it a crossword puzzle in novel form, she is partially right. You can read other [negative] comments from the more simple-minded reviews too, but time has and will prove these knuckleheads wrong. Some claim intellectual independence as a smoke screen but they are hiding behind a myopic view of art and they do not want to put in the effort to research the references and push for a bigger picture. Other reviewers say it doesn't mean anything, Isn't poetry or music but there is a personal hatred to their reviews that tells me they are mad at the art work for not revealing itself, clearly, to them. This group is reviewing and revealing their own frustrations at not being able to conceive of or make great art. True critics, I suppose. They want to defend their defination of what art is, for everyone. This group is quite adamant and takes FW personally, like they are on a crusade to inform the world. I suppose, Joyce has worked his Irish magic on them too.. their banner reads:
Books, ultimately, are read for the quality of the ideas they express, and the quality of the style used to express them.
critics want to define artistic "quality". In any case, the "ideas" of FW have universal essence and are of an epic nature. Unfortunately, some reviewers want the transcendent nature of life to be clear, right in front of them, religion is what other people do and everything is just as it seems. Look, some great works of art do not speak to all, [Picasso's - la guerre] but make no mistake; this book is an incredible work of word art BUT does not reveal itself easily OR to everybody and that is exactly what Joyce wanted, he wanted a few sensitive and intelligent readers to experience an epiphany about the cycles of death, life, myth, history, love, war, hate, sex[lots of sex], "social marketing", male female, brother, sister, mother father- how these patterns of archetype forces affect us, this is another "reality", parallel to ours but in dark matter; [Unconscious and subconscious]. FW is not describing these forces but placing us in them by disorienting us, making the reader become part of a jumbled up night world of myth and universal cycles. How these forces of life affect us is a confusing book during the day [James Joyce's Ulysses] but at night they really go off [Finnegans Wake]. People, It doesn't get any more insightful than that.
Another reviewer, a Mr. T.Powerless, who wrote a review of the "FW Skeleton Key", - keeps asking:
What you think this book is trying to say in its 600+ pages of indeciperhable ramblings (and some proof would be nice)
How he can write a review of a book about the meaning of FW and still keep asking this questions is befuddling. His theory is that it is all just random letters [never mind the puns and historical stuff] and there is no meaning and that all the smart people have been fooled, except him. Finnegans Wake is 95% "deciphered" but something is lost in trying to put this art book in sound bites or one-sentence sayings. Take the phrase "reveiling the night". It is "saying" several things at once, each makes sense but it is also mixed up, obscure and in the mystery of the conjoining of mixed up words, is the art. There are straight forward ideas that can be expressed from FW: one of my favorites- how we should strive for things and concepts that uplift the spirit and these will pull us together, because they inspires us as one people, not on material stuff that separate us, but- really, so what, another "good" idea but silly in a way. Like the "ideas" of Hamlet: often puerile, but with Shakespeare's brilliance take on new life. And, when JJ writes the brilliant connotations are imbued in his art. The art is lost in my translations. Yes, but the critic keeps asking, its not clear and What does it MEAN, - but... what is meaning and is meaning always clear?? The hackneyed haiku: the sound of one hand clapping?- what does it mean? The meaning is a paradox or another question. all those things that do not have a sound when struck, but what does that mean? It is not about the meaning of life it is about the feeling of being alive. If you must have a meaning rather than another perspective, understanding or an epiphany: Warning: stop reading FW before you get mad. Clearly, T.Powerless kept reading, couldn't find what it was saying and became irritated.
However, FW, as a bit of a mixed up crossword puzzle, demands an explanation, a guide, patience, translations and a key. The best starting points are John Bishop's book and Joseph Campbell's " A Skeleton Key to FW". In other words, FW MUST ALSO BE STUDIED LIKE A TEXT BOOK, clues must be researched and an adventure game like quality to the mysteries and the possible solutions can be fun. yes, for some tracking down the sources and uses of JJ words and relating it to the essence of a sentence or chapter is part of the mystery. Others see The historical period of FW reflected in the work: pre World War II. Freud and Jung going at it, Picasso and Matisse going off, it was a heady time for all the western cultures. AND to top it off Joyce dies sudenly 6 months after the book is published in 1941!!! Although Joyce hated FW to be called surreal, FW is an abstract work of art and as such, like any great conceptual or complex philosophy [Nietzsche or Wittgenstein] or abstract art, is extremely personal and open to much interpretation. One can get several versions of exactly what is being "said" from the same passage; this really upsets the material minded and if you are not prepared for this kind of art or thought or are resistant to abstract art then, chances are, FW will be/ is gibberish to you. As The above reviewer states correctly: a good work must have great style, FW has a style of immense complexity and quality but NOT great clarity, intentionly.
FW is a huge Irish joke about the cycles of human life, art and thought. There is a twisted sense of humor in this Irish consciousness making a sad joke of life; the punch line is about the Devine Comedy of existence. FW is also an intentional riddle with several answers; the 60 different languages, puns, portmanteaus [the crossword part] with historical and mythical referances as well. the reader can wander and wonder about this book of life for hours or years. At times, like any fine work of abstract art: it reveals the artist and viewer more than the "reality" of the subject. No, FW can not be translated into another "language", no it was not written in the way other books are, The 4 books were not written in order and can be understood as independent sketches on different and recurring themes. Yes, joyce had a comprehensive and firm intention when he wrote it. If you start to dig and study the text the book becomes an obscure magic workbook about the recycled archetypical nights of human consciousness. However, unless you are a scholar, you must study the philology or it becomes drivel and unless you have an open mind and can embrace obscurity the work quickly becomes irritating. The sound of the words can be helpful and so some find that FW is often less abstract if read out loud. In any case the puzzle must be solved in the dark as characters, stories, change, transmute; opposites are defined and then become one and need each other and then digress again. The simple "story" has been figured out, the references have exhaustedly been found and still there are mysteries to this work. Joyce intended this too and future generations will appreciate, miss understand and wonder, love/hate it, fight over and review this book!
No, not everything printed on paper is literature and not all words are found in a dictionary, not all communication is with words, from the dictionary, or for that matter verbal. So the one reviewer that says he doesn't dream in puns and his dreams are about "something" is confusing the description of a dream with the conjuring of the "reality" of a dream world, using language. the difference between going to the movies or describing the movie. Joyce is NOT trying to describe a dream; he is trying to put you in a dream cycle of life forces in motion. JJ is comunicating with strange english sounding words to make a language of dreams. Joyce's subconscious, night world is obscure, intentionally, like "real" dreams. This bothers people, just as their own dreams do. This night book has stages, like the night, but there is no meaning to the actual story or beginning or end, the individual dreams have "meanings" and there is a progression but, like reincarnation or purgatory, there is no end or beginning . How do you escape such a work of art? perhaps a third book about Nirvana or Paradise: a simple book, like the Paridiso of the Devine Comedy. Cambell thought this was in the works when JJ died.
I'm sure the greatest thing is NOT to listen or watch the defenders of FW. Although there are some fascinating works on the Wake and Dante, Vico, the Egyptian book of the dead, the book of Krells, Cabala, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Talmud and lots of dream consciousness-etc. My suggestion is to read or scan it, with JC's "Skeleton Key" so you can get a sense of what is being said, see which of the 4 books speaks to you and then start digging on your own, the best annotated guide is now on the internet, John Bishop's book is insightful. he also wrote the intro to the Penguin edition. Stop after a while, put it down, read some other stuff, pick it up later. I knew almost nothing of the philosopher Vico and had not read Dante. James Joyce was a true artistic personality and scholar and, as an eccentric, sardonic Irish scholar, he wanted to be obscure and drive all the other [Irish and non Irish] scholars nuts. This book is intentionally obscure and Joyce is known to have re written parts that were not obscure enough!! WHY? Again, dreams can have several meanings because the dreamer and the dream are one. the dreamer/reader must decide which meaning is pertinent to the story and to your own story and see if it fits. There is a subjective part to making something abstract and a subjective part to interpretation the art. Unfortunately, this vagueness plus the references and language threw the doors open to the cross winds of scholarly conjecture. At the end, however, Joyce is communicating something powerful, eternal [not about time] and wondrous but the reader/dreamer must be prepared to study, dig deep and interpret and sometimes just guess. A Warning label would say: it took him 15 years to write it. 1] There is no bottom 2] the journey is "reveiling". - if FW doesn't speak to you, that's cool; just don't say there is nothing there if you can't find or see it.
Hard, but good.......2007-04-27
This is a fun book to read, and has many life lessons in it along with myths that are easy to decode throught its pages. I don't know why people are so quick to dismiss this land mark. If you don't understand the language fine, I don't understand most of the words, but Joyce did say to understand this book to read out loud, and with an Irish accent. I did this, and it was much simpler for me to read the story. Another thing you have to think of are circles, every paragraph tells basicly the same story except in a different way with different sounds. And with that comes a structured whole. For all you people that hate learning things, I would stir clear of this, or you may end up having your mind exband to new harizons.
Life Is Too Short For This..........2007-03-27
As one of the reviewers noted in his review, I too have given many postive marks to those who have given five-star reviews for this novel; because some reviewers have made very good arguments in defense of this novel. [I never give negative marks on anything, even if I don't like a review, but I do give plenty of positives] Therefore, before you begin to throw the bricks and sling your arrows at me, please let me try and explain why I gave this book such low marks. First of all, I have tried to read--or at least decipher "Finnegans Wake" on four different occasions. I see from some of the reviews that anyone who attempts to disagree with this novels merits gets pelted with negative marks. For those of you who enjoy this novel, good for you! I do not profess to be as knowledgeable as some of you may be on this books merits. But I DO KNOW WHAT I LIKE! And I did not like this novel.
I first tried reading "Finnegans Wake" when I was in High School [it was not required reading] because I heard so much about it that I wanted to read something challenging. And challenging was an understatement. Realizing I was young, I attempted it much later while in the military. As if military life were not frustrating enough. It was not until I entered college, where I was reguired to read the novel, that I did so with true earnest: Due to the fact that I had to write an essay on the novel. I did receive an A minus on the paper. However, to be honest, this was after profusely littering the paper with as much b***s***, that to me Joyce littered his novel with. My professor must have seen some great merit in this essay---at least I felt so at the time.
However, wanting to truly understand the novel, I decided to REALLY try and capture what Joyce was trying to write. This too led to my dislike of the novel. Not so much with the books difficulty [although that was a problem], but with the simple question: Is it really worth reading? My answer? No! For me a novel has to give me that quality of enjoyment that makes the journey a delightful one. It has to capture my soul! This novel never did capture my soul. Give me unabridged editions [the only ones I read] of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Dumas, "Les Miserables" by Hugo, "War and Peace" by Tolstoy [once is enough please] and more importantly, my favorite author, Dostoevsky, "Notes From the Underground," "Crime and Punishment," and "The Brothers Karamazov." These novels have given me something back in my life for the efforts that I put into reading them. They were profound and affected me deeply. They ALL gave me something in my life.
In conclusion, to those who find this novel worth the high praise it has garnered, I respectfully disagree. There are many great novels from which to choose to spend and evening, afternoon, or morning perusing. And while I do not look negatively on your opinions; if this book gives you enjoyment, then great for you. For me, however, the book gave me nothing. Nor do I wish to spend what little time we are alloted in our short life to spend it on this type of reading. That is my honest opinion. I am sure a 5 star review will give me many positive marks, but that is not why this review exists, or what I am about. This is just my honest opinion.
Today I am going to start reading two novels that I have been wanting to read for some time, but have put off until recently. "Growth of the Soil", by Knut Hamsun, and "The Master and Margarita," by Mikhail Bulgakov. I hear they are good novels; and after laboring over "Finnegans Wake" for too many hours in my life, I will begin to start on that reading list of mine. I'll let you know how these two novels work out. One thing I am pretty sure of, however, is that they will probably not frustrate me as much as "Finnegans Wake" did; and in fact, no other novel has been more of a disappointment to me than Joyce's so-called masterpiece.
Houston...we have a problem.......2007-02-02
I gave this book two stars because I admire anyone who can summon the sheer willpower needed to complete a novel of nonsense--particularly one with as much deadwood between the covers as this one. One must also admire the salemanship that must have been displayed when FW was presented to a publisher. If not for these factors it would have gotten one star. Please don't be sucked into the crowd that thinks a book is really good if they can't understand it. Instead, rate highly the book whos author presented you with a clear story, made you want to read the next page, and perhaps, in the end, changed your view of the world.
Average customer rating:
- Irish Stew
- Beautifully written but underwhelming
- Great Vignettes Of Dublin Life and A Great way to introduce yourself to James Joyce
- Untitled
- Frustratingly short short stories
|
Dubliners (Oxford World's Classics)
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
British
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
General
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Paperback
| Joyce, James
| ( J )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
British
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics)
-
Ulysses
-
The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions)
-
To the Lighthouse
-
Frankenstein (Dover Thrift Editions)
ASIN: 0192839993 |
Book Description
'I regret to see that my book has turned out un fiasco solenne' James Joyce's disillusion with the publication of Dubliners in 1914 was the result of ten years battling with publishers, resisting their demands to remove swear words, real place names and much else, including two entire stories. Although only 24 when he signed his first publishing contract for the book, Joyce already knew its worth: to alter it in any way would 'retard the course of civilisation in Ireland'. Joyce's aim was to tell the truth - to create a work of art that would reflect life in Ireland at the turn of the last century and by rejecting euphemism, reveal to the Irish the unromantic reality the recognition of which would lead to the spiritual liberation of the country. Each of the fifteen stories offers a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Dubliners - a death, an encounter, an opportunity not taken, a memory rekindled - and collectively they paint a portrait of a nation.
Download Description
Dubliners was completed in 1905, but a series of British and Irish publishers and printers found it offensive and immoral, and it was suppressed. The book finally came out in London in 1914, just as Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began to appear in the journal Egoist under the auspices of Ezra Pound. The first three stories in Dubliners might be incidents from a draft of Portrait of the Artist, and many of the characters who figure in Ulysses have their first appearance here, but this is not a book of interest only because of its relationship to Joyce's life and mature work. It is one of the greatest story collections in the English language--an unflinching, brilliant, often tragic portrait of early twentieth-century Dublin. The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life. Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland.
Customer Reviews:
Irish Stew.......2007-09-07
Because "Ulysses" is so imposing with its epic length and pages of solid, tiny text I decided to get my feet wet with "Dubliners," which is not quite half the other's length. From what I read with "Dubliners", I'll have to give "Ulysses" a shot in the near future.
Normally I'd do an obligatory plot summary, but that would be a pointless exercise because A) There are 15 short stories that comprise the book and B) None of them really has a traditional "plot" to speak of. Rather, "Dubliners" is a serious of what we in modern parlance would call "character sketches." Think of it as each story being a portrait of some person or scene done in painstakingly vivid detail. Each story focuses on some small moment that often leads the character to discovering a melancholy truth about life.
The first stories focus on children encountering the harsh realities of the adult world--a priest dying and an encounter with a creepy, crazy old man--and then move on to teenage love and then more adult problems of marriage, family, and politics before a final meditation on death in the aptly-titled "The Dead."
The way Joyce captures the humanity of each character is so stunning; he taps into the soul of these people to expose the secrets, wishes, hopes, and fears that reside within each of us. It's hard not to see a part of yourself in one or more of these characters, almost as if Joyce knew you over 90 years ago better than you know yourself right now. Because while the technology may change, the human psyche remains the same.
The reason I can't give this four stars is that like any short story collection there's a fatigue that sets in upon reading "Dubliners." The longer the collection goes on, the more similarities can be seen in the characters and the situations, the descriptions and the dialog. It's like listening to an album of music and noting that song 10 sounds a lot like song 5, which sounds a lot like song 2. There's really no way to avoid that fatigue unless the writer uses a completely different style each time.
As well, reading a book written over 90 years ago that's set in Ireland can be a challenge for a modern (not quite 90) year old American. Footnotes and such can be helpful, but it also interrupts the flow of the reading.
Still, Joyce's uncanny knowledge of humanity is well worth any fatigue or nuisances.
That is all.
Beautifully written but underwhelming.......2007-07-31
I enjoyed four of the fifteen stories in this book immensely. The others were great for their prose, depiction of people at certain junctures in their life, and reflection of Dublin at the turn of the Century, but otherwise not compelling.
"The Dead," his most enduring and evocative piece of short fiction, did nothing for me. I loved A Little Cloud, Couterparts, A Painful Case, and Eveline.
I read the Barnes&Noble Classic edition. The maps at the beginning of each story added no value.
After reading this book I'm ready for some contemporary fiction.
Great Vignettes Of Dublin Life and A Great way to introduce yourself to James Joyce .......2007-03-30
Admittedly Joyce's better known works can seem quite daunting to the uninitiated but here in these short character sketches a reader can begin to understand what all fuss is about and enjoy some wonderfully written short stories in the bargain.
The stories are consistently good and from the very first where a young boy encounters the death of someone he knows for the first time the tales and the characters are engaging. Highly recommended !
Untitled.......2007-02-01
I don't really have anything thoughtful to say exept that after reading this book multiple times, I think that it is tight, but breathes, and is choreographed as best as a human being could do, and in that regard, it is very much like a Beatles album, and should be esteemed in like manner.
Frustratingly short short stories.......2007-01-05
I had given up on James Joyce after finding "Ulysses" too murky and disorienting. When I mentioned this to a young handsome literature student in a Dublin pub, he suggested I try "Dubliners" instead. When I got back home I checked a copy out of the library and found it hard to believe this collection of stories was written by the same man who confounded me before. I found each story almost instantly engaging (except the one about the election; too far removed from my modern American experience, I guess), and most seemed to end abruptly. This may be why another reviewer wrote that the stories had no climax, but I simply wanted more. I'm here on Amazon to buy a copy because I still want more.
So did Joyce write these stories and then hit the Absinthe before writing "Ulysses"? Or am I thinking of Oscar Wilde...?
Book Description
More than at any time since the 1920's the issues of immigration and ethnicity have become central to discussions of American society and identity. Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic addresses this contemporary debate, bringing together essays written over the past eighteen years by college students exploring their ethnic roots—from the experiences of their forbears to the place of ethnicity in their lives.
The students range from descendants of Europeans whose families immigrated several generations ago to Asian and Latin American immigrants of more recent decades to African-Americans and Hispanics—some have more than one ethnic heritage to grapple with, while others have migrated from one place to another within the United States. Together their voices create a dialogue about the interplay of ethnic traditions and values with American culture.
These are moving personal reflections on the continuities and changes in the ethnic experience in the United States and on the evolving meaning of ethnicity over time and across generations. Despite vocal concerns in recent years about ethnic divisiveness, these student writings show how much many young Americans share even in their differences.
Books:
- The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates (Volume 1)
- The Shipping News
- The Structure and Dynamics of Networks: (Princeton Studies in Complexity)
- The Ultimate Math Refresher for the GRE, GMAT, and SAT
- The Way We Lived Then : Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper
- The Wonders of the Amalfi Coast: Capri, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento (Italian Regions)
- Walking the Bible: A Photographic Journey
- Weeds of the Northeast (Comstock Books)
- What the Dead Know: A Novel
- Why Do Christians Shoot Their Wounded?: Helping (Not Hurting Those With Emotional Difficulties)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Unexpected George Washington: His Private Life
- The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell
- Recollections of My Life
- New Complete Self-sufficiency
- Open My Eyes, Lord: A Practical Guide to Angelic Visitations and Heavenly Experiences
- Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model
- Professional Dreamer: 6 Simple Steps That Turn Dreams Into Reality
- The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History
- Luther H. Holton: A Founding Canadian Intrepreneur
- A Soldier's Promise: The Alvin W. Shipman Story
The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga
London: The Novel
The Forest
Sarum: The Novel of England
Russka: The Novel of Russia
![Angels : A Novel [Bargain Price] by Keyes, Marian](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0006LCLL4.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
