Ulysses Annotated: Revised and Expanded Edition

by Don; Seidman Robert J. Gifford

Don Gifford's annotations to Joyce's great modern classic comprise a specialized encyclopedia that will inform any reading of Ulysses. The suggestive potential of minor details was enormously fascinating to Joyce, and the precision of his use of detail is a most important aspect of his literary method. The annotations in this volume illuminate details which are not in the public realm for most of us.

Genres: Classics

694 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Matt Glaviano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gifford is thorough as hell.

Might offer access to too much information for a first time reader (which I was). As I got further into the novel I consulted this book less and enjoyed the reading experience more. This book is great, but there's so much here that I think it interrupted the flow of reading too much.

Still - so many cultural references in Ulysses. So many songs and the whole of Irish political history. So many languages and so many allusions. Gifford offers important access to all of this information.

So. Much. Information.

[Dominic H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had reason to refer to a couple of sections in Ulysses the other day and in doing so also reached out for my copy of Gifford. What a formidable work of reference this is. Formidable not just because of the unimaginable amount of knowledge and hard labour which must have gone into it but also I think there is a danger if you were to try and read Ulysses and refer to this as you went there's a good chance you might not finish either book! Heretical possibly, but I find it most useful (obviously) as a source for individual quotations or references or more controversially to read through once an entire Episode in Ulysses is completed - so effectively let Joyce and then Gifford wash over you!

[Garrett A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful at times, indeed absolutely necessary to decode Joyce’s recondite allusions, obscure use of archaic language or slang terminology, etc. But included a lot of obvious and unnecessary notes too, place names, and “see previous note at this section”, which I found bogged me down. I found myself consulting this less and less in the second half, even as the book (Ulysses) got more difficult. Some things indeed I let flow over my head, but I often found this more enjoyable unless said obscurity was of high interest or genuinely slowed my continuity or comprehension. So I did not read this book in its entirety, and a good amount of what I did was skimmed, but still marking this as read because I most certainly spent a lot of time poking around in this book

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 4 out of 5]

He knows everything you need to know - an absolute wealth of knowledge. Worth the price alone for the section on rhetorical devices. You can read Ulysses without this - and the Hastings book is probably more helpful in terms of understanding the whole experience - but if you'd like to know which 19th-C folk song Joyce is on about - you'll need this. If you're picturing Chico holding a stack of books to sell at the race track - we will understand each other just fine.

[Rob Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are attempting Ulysses, this guide is essential. And I so mean essential.

[Jgravander · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a must-read companion to Ulysses. You can't understand anything in that book without it.