The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses

I took Ulysses as part of a course, and The New Bloomsday Book was a tremendous help in my enjoying Ulysses. I read up to the Cyclops episode without Blamires, and, though I was basically comprehending the book, I was losing a lot of the significance of what I was reading. My practice from there on in was to read the episode, read Blamires's guide for that episode, and then read the episode again - a bit tedious, you might think, but Joyce is all in the details and the repeated reading. There are some arguments against having a guide: clearly, part of the reason for Joyce's style was to disorient the reader, to make the reader work, to make the reader give up the dream of total comprehension, of "licking up the cream of thought", to use the phrase of Joyce's protege, Beckett. On the other hand, why torture yourself! If you read it concurrently with Ulysses, episode by episode, it really doesn't ruin anything plotwise (there's not much plot to speak of!), but it opens up a the world of significant details that otherwise might have passed you by. I say Blamires accomplishes what he says he aims to do: to reveal the significance of details of Ulysses' on the first read that would normally only come to be seen on a second or third read through.

This isn't exactly a work of criticism, and certainly not a "Cliff notes" guide to Ulysses: it's somewhere in the middle. It's basically a paraphrase of Joyce's novel, roughly 260 pages, which tells the story of Bloomsday in plain language. So it's basically an understandable version of the novel in straightforward, unclouded prose. It is not strictly a paraphrase, however, as now and then Blamires will tell you what is supposed to symbolize what. But it certainly doesn't list the characters or themes of "Ulysses" in any organized way, and there is no extended commentary. Provided you understand this, the book can be immensely useful -- especially on your first reading of "Ulysses." I should note that those who already have their sea legs with Joyce's book will, for this very reason, find Blamires's effort to be of limited use, for it largely tells a story you already know.

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This novel is not for the casual reader. This is one of several excellent accompaniments to "Ulysses" and well worth the price and the time to explore the various perspectives of Joyce and this seminal work.

Would you travel to an unknown land without a guide? In James Joyce's seminal work, Ulysses, we find ourselves adrift in some very strange lands. Linguistic, cultural and literary references abound - along with a good helping of pure weirdness. Blamire's book helps us get through this jungle - and still have a good time doing so!The New Bloomsday Book follows Ulysses chapter by chapter (note that Ulysses doesn't actually have chapter headings so just this information by itself would be wonderful). At the beginning of each chapter Blamires relates the forthcoming pages to the equivalent works from Homer. Then we have the pertinent points mentioned, with discussion about important issues as they arise. Cross-references to other important parts of the text are given which is particularly useful when, as often happens, Joyce mentions something in passing that takes on greater signficance a hundred pages further on.The level of detail is about right. We don't get commentary on every single allusion or phrase but we do get the highlights - enough for us to keep our footing on this journey and get pleasure out of the trip. If I tackle Ulysses again - and it will be a while! - I may want a more detailed reference such as Gilberts, but for a first read, The New Bloomsday book is the essential choice.The book has page references to the Gabler edition, the Penguin edition and occasional references to the Oxford edition. I read this with the Penguin edition and didn't notice any discrepencies.

When I started my class in Ulysses, I couldn't understand the variety of different languages and various styles that James Joyce employed in his writing. I read the Bloomsday Book after I condensed each episode in my notes and suddenly I could fathom the meaning of the book. I carefully read the original section and highlighted important sections. With the Bloomsday Book, I could understand the meaning of these highlighted sections. I especially enjoyed the clarity of the Bloomsday Book; it brought the original work to life and gave new meanings to each segment. The section that I selected to discuss was the last episode, Penelope. At the first reading, I was baffled to find no punctuation. But the word yes seemed to dominate the entire work. Molly Bloom was definitely a yes woman. And yes, I managed to decipher Molly's rolling monologue through the description of each sentence and the meaning of the 8 separate paragraphs. Even though Ulysses presented a enigmatic style of writing to interpret, I enjoyed the book thoroughly and plan to re-read the text again because through this Bloomsday guide, I could put the pieces together and discover the wonder of James Joyce's epic.