Ulysses

By: James Joyce

Narrated by: Jim Norton

Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Ulysses is regarded by many as the single most important novel of the 20th century. It tells the story of one day in Dublin, June 16th 1904, largely through the eyes of Stephen Dedalus (Joyce's alter ego from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) and Leopold Bloom, an advertising salesman. Both begin a normal day, and both set off on a journey around the streets of Dublin, which eventually brings them into contact with one another.

While Bloom's passionate wife, Molly, conducts yet another illicit liasion (with her concert manager), Bloom finds himself getting into arguments with drunken nationalists and wild carousing with excitable medical students, before rescuing Stephen Dedalus from a brawl and returning with him to his own basement kitchen.

In the hands of Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan, experienced and stimulating Joycean readers, and carefully directed by Roger Marsh, Ulysses becomes accessible as never before. It is entertaining, immediate, funny, and rich in classical, philosophical, and musical allusion.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

(P)2004 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Classics, 2005

"As ambitious and rewarding an audio production as any that exists, an audio experience that truly deserves to be cherished....Readers of Ulysses have long been encouraged to read out loud the more difficult sections for added comprehension and enjoyment of the language. Now, thanks to Naxos, the entire book is available in a performance to savor. It is safe to say that anyone wanting to experience the preeminent work of modern fiction has in this package the perfect audio companion." (AudioFile)

Waffle

What did you like best about Ulysses? What did you like least?

The finish. Actually the last chapter is a little saucy.

What could James Joyce have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not written it.

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

Excellent. With out Jim Norton and the lady who joined in, I would have never made it through this rambling of an insane Irishman.

Did Ulysses inspire you to do anything?

Yes, go to sleep.

Any additional comments?

You either will love this book or hate it. Me, I'm in the middle.

tedious if brilliant

While it is easy to see why this book is so acclaimed, it is also hard to "recommend" it to anyone. There is no question about the brilliance of James Joyce and what a feat it was to create this masterpiece. At the same time, it is a feat to listen to it.

If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be inside the mind of another person for an entire day, certainly partake of this novel.

It is too much to digest in one listening .. it could be alifetime study.

I realize now why so many authors refer to it: they are bragging about the fact that they made it through.

I will probably become as pedantic about it myself!

PS The reading is magnificent.

Don't Even Try to Read This Book

I tried and tried to read this book and a couple times got several hundred pages into it before I had to admit that I had no idea what was going on. The difficulty lies in the way the dialogue is structured so that sometimes you are not really sure who is talking.
Listening to it, especially with good readers makes all the difference in the world. And it is much more enjoyable especially like this version in which the readers know what they are doing. I read that there are professional Joyce readers who do nothing else but perform by reading Joyce. I prefer reading most of the time because listening is too slow and if you speed up the recording to the reading speed it is too fast but listening is the only way to go on this one.

Brilliant Production!

James Joyce and his contemporaries changed the face of Literature. Ulysses is obviously an amazing achievement. This said, the monsterous thing is barely comprehensible to read.

The producers of this audiobook have done everything in their power to make Ulysses intelligible. It is an absolutely brilliant production. Jim Norton might just be a genius.

If you like strangeness and mental puzzles or if you are a Literature scholar this is the book for you. I guess I should give Joyce's story five stars but the only thing that made it entertaing for me was the stunning narration and I personally rate stories on their entertainment value.

Difficult read but ...

I do immersive reading, listening to the book and reading the text at the same time. This is a great audio edition but Ulysses is one of the most difficult reads. I suggest using the Gabler edition of the book along with The New Bloomsday Book for a great synopsis so things are much clearer than if did not have it. Then if you are serious you should also have Ulysses Annotated, an entire book of annotations unto itself. Three books and the audio book: with time and perseverance you are set! Trevor

Great addition to understanding this book

Ulysses is not a simple read - especially without annotations. This audio version absolutely makes the text more accessible - and is a Herculean achievement by all involved - not the least Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan who deserve an OBE each (or something) for reading it out loud with such seeming ease.

Clever but dull

Joyce is a very clever author. He has a mastery of the language that is at times very funny, and at times very engaging.

On the other hand, he just doesn't know how to tell a story. There is no narative here, no suspense, no climax. It is just an account of a man's thoughts and trivial actions going through a day.

Joyce badly needs an editor. I found myself looking to see how much longer I was going to have to suffer through a chapter.

The reading, I have to say, was excellent, which is probably what made me stick with it.

Superlative rendition of a flawed classic

There simply could be no finer performance of this iconic book than Jim Norton's and his collaborator.
My only issue is with the book itself. I realize it is blasphemy to say, but the fact is that the book ranges from beauty and inventiveness, to self-conscious pretentiousness and fecal obsession.
The Emperor is wearing a half-suit of clothes, but could not ask for a better introduction.

Fantastic! Use 0.9x narration speed & included pdf

I loved this reading of Ulysses by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan. I previewed several other Audible offerings of Joyce's masterwork, and am glad I chose this production. The readers are clearly quite familiar with the text and make its complex form and structure much more accessible to the listener. I highly recommend slowing the default 1.0x narration speed to 0.9x or even 0.8x - at least until you become comfortable with the Irish brogue, 1900's slang and speech patterns within the narrative. I also found the accompanying pdf booklet to be quite a handy reference tool with its numbered section listings, summaries, time markers, and other useful features. As for the recording itself, the addition of Joyce's song references as intros to each episode, plus the narrator's brief renditions of the characters' 1890's-1900's ditties whenever they occur, was a nice touch. Norton's individualized character voices, and Marcella Riordan's voice of Molly, rang true. They added color and helped clarify the characters' roles in the story. The (appropriately) soft-spoken internal monologues strained my hearing at times, but that's what the audio player's volume control is for. I was especially impressed by the nearly three hour-long rendering of Molly's [unpunctuated] soliloquy at the conclusion.

If you already know and appreciate the printed Ulysses, listening to this audiobook edition can be like reconnecting and reminiscing with an old friend. If the audiobook will be your first experience of Joyce's Ulysses, reading the text subsequently will be much less formidable and more enjoyable.

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Better than I could imagine

This reading of Ulysses is brilliant. I will make it a Feb 2 or June 16 tradition.