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Cover image of The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
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The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses

Patrick Hastings

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From the creator of UlyssesGuide.com, this essential guide to James Joyce's masterpiece weaves together plot summaries, interpretive analyses, scholarly perspectives, and historical and biographical context to create an easy-to-read, entertaining, and thorough review of Ulysses.

In The Guide to James Joyce's 'Ulysses,' Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness...

From the creator of UlyssesGuide.com, this essential guide to James Joyce's masterpiece weaves together plot summaries, interpretive analyses, scholarly perspectives, and historical and biographical context to create an easy-to-read, entertaining, and thorough review of Ulysses.

In The Guide to James Joyce's 'Ulysses,' Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel. Deftly weaving together spirited plot summaries, helpful interpretive analyses, scholarly criticism, and explanations of historical and biographical context, Hastings makes Joyce's famously intimidating novel—one that challenges the conventions and limits of language—more accessible and enjoyable than ever before. He unpacks each chapter of Ulysses with episode guides, which offer pointed and readable explanations of what occurs in the text. He also deals adroitly with many of the puzzles Joyce hoped would "keep the professors busy for centuries."

Full of practical resources—including maps, explanations of the old British system of money, photos of places and things mentioned in the text, annotated bibliographies, and a detailed chronology of Bloomsday (June 16, 1904—the single day on which Ulysses is set)—this is an invaluable first resource about a work of art that celebrates the strength of spirit required to endure the trials of everyday existence. The Guide to James Joyce's 'Ulysses' is perfect for anyone undertaking a reading of Joyce's novel, whether as a student, a member of a reading group, or a lover of literature finally crossing this novel off the bucket list.

Reviews

Reviews

Written with warmth, affection, clarity and insight, [The Guide to James Joyce's "Ulysses"] is full of observations and witty asides that remind readers that Ulysses – whatever else it may be – is a comic novel. Hastings's book is thoroughly useable, and many first-time Joyceans will find it indispensable as they embark on the lifelong adventure that is reading Ulysses.

An admirably written, thoroughly researched, and eminently usable guidebook to Joyce's gargantuan masterwork. Its audience will be wide, varied, and (best of all) grateful for the book's witty clarity. I would assign it to my undergraduates and recommend it to friends and colleagues in other fields.

Clear, witty, and crisply written, Patrick Hastings's guide to Ulysses provides first-time readers with many essential tools for appreciating Joyce's masterpiece. I strongly recommend this book for undergraduate classrooms and for lay readers seeking a reliable navigator for their journey through the greatest novel in the English language.

The Guide to James Joyce's 'Ulysses' is indispensable for first-time readers and veteran Joyceans alike: chapter overviews orient us, cultural backgrounds immerse us in Joyce's world, and incisive analysis shows us just how deep our readings can go. Like the wisest of guides, Patrick Hastings turns from answers to questions and from essential scholarship to the masterpiece's great mysteries.

That first-time experience of reading Ulysses is one that endures for artists, teachers, and Joyceheads all their lives. Those mingled feelings of bafflement, discovery, joy in the language, and cautiousness about one's own understanding of things have created a worldwide community of devotees. Hastings's work welcomes everyone into that community.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
328
ISBN
9781421443492
Illustration Description
17 maps
Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Episode Guides
Chapter 1. "Telemachus" Guide
Chapter 2. "Nestor" Guide
Chapter 3. "Proteus" Guide
Chapter 4. "Calypso" Guide
Chapter 5. "Lotus-Eaters" Guide
Chapter 6.

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Episode Guides
Chapter 1. "Telemachus" Guide
Chapter 2. "Nestor" Guide
Chapter 3. "Proteus" Guide
Chapter 4. "Calypso" Guide
Chapter 5. "Lotus-Eaters" Guide
Chapter 6. "Hades" Guide
Chapter 7. "Aeolus" Guide
Chapter 8. "Lestrygonians" Guide
Chapter 9. "Scylla and Charybdis" Guide
Chapter 10. "Wandering Rocks" Guide
Chapter 11. "Sirens" Guide
Chapter 12. "Cyclops" Guide
Chapter 13. "Nausicaa" Guide
Chapter 14. "Oxen of the Sun" Guide
Chapter 15. "Circe" Guide
Chapter 16. "Eumaeus" Guide
Chapter 17. "Ithaca" Guide
Chapter 18. "Penelope" Guide
Acknowledgments
Appendixes
A. A Chronology of Stephen's Day
B. A Chronology of Bloom's Day
C. Money in Ulysses
D. Ulysses Schema
Notes
Selected and Annotated Bibliography
Index

Author Bio