Ulysses

By: James Joyce

Narrated by: Donal Donnelly

The first authorized, unabridged release of this timeless classic and exclusively available from Recorded Books. Ulysses records the events of a single day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin, Ireland.

Public Domain (P)1995 Recorded Books

A marathon stream of consciousness

The book seemed to me to be an enjoyable stream of consciousness. It was very well read but hard to follow. This would be better read than listened to. Seemed hard to follow and I ended up backing up to figure out the current setting several times. In the end I resigned myself to not closely following the story and just enjoying the dialog.

Joyce changes 20th century Literature

An indescribable experience. Joyce pushes the boundaries of what defines a novel--establishing Modernism and stylistically unmooring 20th century Lit from what came before it.
Introspective, whimsical, vulgar, obsessive, honest.
Now I've said how important Ulysses is (and it is, it feels like there are books before, and books after-- it echoes through so much of what came after) how do I rate it? As a landmark, all the stars. As a novel, 4 out of 5 stars. Not 5 because it is SO relentless about breaking ground, it sometimes distracts from 'feeling'.

Brilliantly performed but pompous and turgid prose

If you love 19th and early 20th century purple prose then this is for you. Hailed as one of the greatest classics in the whole cannon of Irish literature, the concept is brilliant and the linguistic fireworks are impressive. Nevertheless Joyce is clearly on a mission to catalog and exhibit every word in his vocabulary whether it adds to the prose or not. I found it to be a monumentally pompous exhibition of his undeniable erudition and with scant thought given to whether the over-use of flowery language would add anything to the enjoyment of the reader, save a smug few who might enjoy the opportunity to congratulate themselves on the richness of their own vocabularies. Sitting through 40 hours of this was an effort of will power and unrewardedhope that it might turn out to be something interesting. Given the status of the work my views may be considered by many to be little but crass philistinism, but I believe this work to be little more than a literary version of “The king’s new clothes”. I suspect more readers or listeners will buy in to it simply because it is such a great classic. Personally I found it dull as dishwater, save for a few very enjoyable dialogues. None of this detracts from the performance of the narrators, however, which was a simply stunning tour de force.

I had to go through it twice but I loved it.

Would you consider the audio edition of Ulysses to be better than the print version?

Don't know. I never would have stuck with it if I had to read it on paper.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ulysses?

Molly Bloom at the end. If I wasn't married...

Have you listened to any of Donal Donnelly’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time but I immediately downloaded 'A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. He's terrific.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Fear and Loathing in 1904 Dublin. (with sex)

Any additional comments?

Reading all the stuff I should have read in college. Well most of it anyway. This was quite an experience.

The Narrator makes this the best Audible book ever

The first three short chapters are filled with history and an introduction to the characters. I did not have much history background, so it was a little hard to understand at the beginning. Then WOW, the rest of the book is easy to understand and so great!!! You never know when the performance will hit you with something so funny you can't stop laughing, and you learn so much history. That narrator is so super great and can do any voice. I love listening to him so much.