This is one of the companion books that I read alongside Ulysses. This book puts the whole story in context, with a dose of humour, which is an essential ingredient to getting through Ulysses. It takes Ulysses down from his pedestal step by step to make reading more enjoyable. Each chapter begins with a map showing the whereabouts of Bloom, Stephan or both… Molly never really leaves her house. Explanation of James Joyce’s style, which changes throughout the chapters, clarification of the references to The Odyssey, Hamlet, Dante and tutti quanti, placement in the historical context, all so as not to get lost. For the more difficult chapters, Patrick Hastings offers encouragement to make sure we get through the reading. This book also offers a chronology of Stephen’s Day, a chronology of Bloom’s Day and the Linati Scheme. Each chapter is completed with references to articles on that chapter, and there are even more notes at the end of the book. To complete all this, Patrick Hastings has a website, ulyssesguide.com that has a wealth of information. This book felt like a real guide in the flesh, taking me by the hand and walking me through Ulysses. I must confess that it was the guide I preferred.
“In early spring 1920, Joyce emerged from the thousand hours he had spent writing “Oxen” and turned his attention to “Circe.” He expected that this episode, like the few he had recently composed, would take him two to three months to complete. Little did he know that “Circe” would require nine drafts and take over half a year to write (Letters 156), much less that it would have the power to bewitch his creative process and entirely transform Ulysses. This episode, with its exhaustive reprises of virtually every character, object, and idea introduced in the novel thus far, would compel Joyce to revise much of what he had previously written. He estimated that he wrote a third of Ulysses at the proof stage of the revision process, arranging codependent details all over the novel and weaving a web of intratextual puzzles that would “keep the professors busy for centuries”.”
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