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The Bloomsday Book. A Guide Through Joyce's Ulysses.
CELT96, RS96 |S ED07, LIT96 |S EK08, LIT97 |S CL07, CCAT97 |S AM, LIT98 |S CI03, LIT00 |S AD52, LIT99 |S CH07, LITTEXT00 |S B14, LIT01 |S AD, BESTSEL01 |S AQ, LIT02 |S AH99, LITENCY02 |S JJ and LIT03 |S THES 03/96, In Dubli
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Harry Blamires
60 books14 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 7, 2014
You may also want to read my review of Ulysses
THE PROPHETS
The Prophets is a short chapter that appeared in the first draft of Ulysses, but was removed at an early stage. Evidently, Joyce was dissatisfied with it. The somewhat tenuous Homeric basis derives from a conversation between Odysseus and the Pantheon; Odysseus asks what posterity will think of him, and is sharply rebuked.
The structure is recognisable as a precursor to the one later used, substantially modified, in the Circe episode. Joyce abandons Dublin and moves the action to a futuristic Geneva, where the unnamed Reviewer walks through the city with his Girlfriend (tentatively identified by various critics with Athena, Oriane de Guermantes and Dante's Beatrice), arguing about different views of Ulysses. In the course of their journey, they meet several True Prophets (Einstein, Darwin, Proust), representing positive views of the book as a work of genius; these are contrasted with the False Prophets (Stephen Potter, Stephenie Meyer, the anonymous author of the Brigade Mondaine series), representing negative views. The unifying bodily image is the testicles: the True Prophets, great seminal thinkers, are mocked with plays on the vulgar words "balls" or "bollocks" (the Riemann sphere, Bollestad, Biloxi etc).
The chapter opens at the Plainpalais market. The Reviewer alludes to quotations from the book which he takes as indicative of its structure. Stanislaw Lem advises him to read his satire, Gigamesh, but is ignored. The Reviewer compares Joyce with Proust, arguing that opposites meet. Meanwhile, his girlfriend has found three trashy French novels; these all turn out to be linked to chapters in Ulysses, supporting both the universality and the pornographic nature of the book. Cosmological themes are invoked. Einstein, Krauss and Dawkins appear to argue that modern science proves the non-existence of God.
The couple now cross the Route de Carouge; the poster on the tram, la belle houx - "beautiful holly" - represents Christ's blood and is at the same time another vulgar pun on "bollocks". On the other side they meet Stephen Potter, author of Lifemanship, who illustrates his Wine Ploy ("Say something boldly meaningless"). This is evidently familiar to the Reviewer. The next encounter is with Darwin (de Candolle's colleague), who ironically defends the book on evolutionary grounds. Reaching Conféderation, they see Kristen Stewart, possibly Gertie McDowell or the Virgin Mary, whose semi-transparent dress stands for the obscure nature of the text. (There is a play on the French titles of Twilight - Fascination and Breaking Dawn - Révélation). Robert Pattinson's speech suggests that reading the book can be pleasurable if there is a sufficient degree of commitment.
At the end of the chapter, the Prophet Elijah appears on the Pont du Mont-Blanc and grants the Girlfriend, though not obviously the Reviewer, a mystical vision of Ulysses as the inexhaustible source of modern literature; but this is immediately undermined by his near namesake E.L. James and her bathetic cry of "Holy shit!" The reader is thus left uncertain to the last as to the book's true value.
THE PROPHETS
The Prophets is a short chapter that appeared in the first draft of Ulysses, but was removed at an early stage. Evidently, Joyce was dissatisfied with it. The somewhat tenuous Homeric basis derives from a conversation between Odysseus and the Pantheon; Odysseus asks what posterity will think of him, and is sharply rebuked.
The structure is recognisable as a precursor to the one later used, substantially modified, in the Circe episode. Joyce abandons Dublin and moves the action to a futuristic Geneva, where the unnamed Reviewer walks through the city with his Girlfriend (tentatively identified by various critics with Athena, Oriane de Guermantes and Dante's Beatrice), arguing about different views of Ulysses. In the course of their journey, they meet several True Prophets (Einstein, Darwin, Proust), representing positive views of the book as a work of genius; these are contrasted with the False Prophets (Stephen Potter, Stephenie Meyer, the anonymous author of the Brigade Mondaine series), representing negative views. The unifying bodily image is the testicles: the True Prophets, great seminal thinkers, are mocked with plays on the vulgar words "balls" or "bollocks" (the Riemann sphere, Bollestad, Biloxi etc).
The chapter opens at the Plainpalais market. The Reviewer alludes to quotations from the book which he takes as indicative of its structure. Stanislaw Lem advises him to read his satire, Gigamesh, but is ignored. The Reviewer compares Joyce with Proust, arguing that opposites meet. Meanwhile, his girlfriend has found three trashy French novels; these all turn out to be linked to chapters in Ulysses, supporting both the universality and the pornographic nature of the book. Cosmological themes are invoked. Einstein, Krauss and Dawkins appear to argue that modern science proves the non-existence of God.
The couple now cross the Route de Carouge; the poster on the tram, la belle houx - "beautiful holly" - represents Christ's blood and is at the same time another vulgar pun on "bollocks". On the other side they meet Stephen Potter, author of Lifemanship, who illustrates his Wine Ploy ("Say something boldly meaningless"). This is evidently familiar to the Reviewer. The next encounter is with Darwin (de Candolle's colleague), who ironically defends the book on evolutionary grounds. Reaching Conféderation, they see Kristen Stewart, possibly Gertie McDowell or the Virgin Mary, whose semi-transparent dress stands for the obscure nature of the text. (There is a play on the French titles of Twilight - Fascination and Breaking Dawn - Révélation). Robert Pattinson's speech suggests that reading the book can be pleasurable if there is a sufficient degree of commitment.
At the end of the chapter, the Prophet Elijah appears on the Pont du Mont-Blanc and grants the Girlfriend, though not obviously the Reviewer, a mystical vision of Ulysses as the inexhaustible source of modern literature; but this is immediately undermined by his near namesake E.L. James and her bathetic cry of "Holy shit!" The reader is thus left uncertain to the last as to the book's true value.
Read
November 6, 2022Sadly I could only finish the companion book. Rip in the chat
July 18, 2019
It's easy to see why Harry Blamires Bloomsday Book is a preferred teaching tool for first-time readers of James Joyce's Ulysses. It's far smaller and more portable unlike Don Gifford's essential survey of allusions, Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses, and it's far less esoteric and more readable than Stuart Gilbert's esteemed James Joyce's Ulysses: a Study.
I believe there have been three editions of this book. The first edition was published in 1966; I read a 1977 reprint of the first edition, "reprinted four times, reprinted with corrections 1974 and 1976." The book last appeared as The New Bloomsday Book in 1988. It's unclear to me, but the 1977 reprint with corrections may represent the "second edition."
Besides the advantages of this guide already mentioned, Blamires' critical asset is the use of incredibly convenient marginal page numbers to immediately refer his reader to the corresponding text in Ulysses. Not only is The Bloomsday Book a page-by-page guide through Joyce's masterpiece, but it reduces that difficult text into language that the novice will find to be exceedingly helpful. In fact I don't doubt that more than a few undergrads have made their way through Ulysses with much more reliance on Blamires' book than on actually reading Ulysses itself.
Being already quite familiar with Ulysses, I found Blamires most interesting when it came to his original insights which I hadn't already encountered elsewhere. At first I was quite impressed to find a number of these, although the further I got into his book ― after about Wandering Rocks, say ― the more I found it turned into a simple plot summary of the original.
This is not a book I will return to, but for a first-time reader of Ulysses it is highly recommended; no doubt the third edition is even more useful than this one.
I believe there have been three editions of this book. The first edition was published in 1966; I read a 1977 reprint of the first edition, "reprinted four times, reprinted with corrections 1974 and 1976." The book last appeared as The New Bloomsday Book in 1988. It's unclear to me, but the 1977 reprint with corrections may represent the "second edition."
Besides the advantages of this guide already mentioned, Blamires' critical asset is the use of incredibly convenient marginal page numbers to immediately refer his reader to the corresponding text in Ulysses. Not only is The Bloomsday Book a page-by-page guide through Joyce's masterpiece, but it reduces that difficult text into language that the novice will find to be exceedingly helpful. In fact I don't doubt that more than a few undergrads have made their way through Ulysses with much more reliance on Blamires' book than on actually reading Ulysses itself.
Being already quite familiar with Ulysses, I found Blamires most interesting when it came to his original insights which I hadn't already encountered elsewhere. At first I was quite impressed to find a number of these, although the further I got into his book ― after about Wandering Rocks, say ― the more I found it turned into a simple plot summary of the original.
This is not a book I will return to, but for a first-time reader of Ulysses it is highly recommended; no doubt the third edition is even more useful than this one.
April 23, 2024
The Bloomsday Book is an essential companion for anyone who wants to read, and finish, Ulysses. I don't know how far I would have made it--with any level of actual comprehension--without it. Even for the sections that are intelligible, Blamires' book highlights themes and calls attention to important references or phrases, tiny details that seem insignificant unless you've already read/studied/mastered the book and are reading it through again with all that understanding in mind. Blamires was a Christian critic and writer, and he offers uniquely Christian, theological insights into the work, that are likely often ignored or passed over (not making Joyce out to be a pious man of faith, but acknowledging the Christian themes and Biblical allusions that are clearly set forth in Ulysses).
August 18, 2017
Indispensable.
Read
December 6, 2023DNF. Didn’t really start! I officially give up on Ulysses.
July 30, 2025
Some things are missing, but it's virtually indispensable.
July 6, 2016
The Bloomsday Book is the supportive text I found to be most frequently recommended for first-time readers of Ulysses. I was glad to have accepted the recommendation and want to extend it to other readers.
The main purpose of this book is to summarize and clarify Ulysses chapter by chapter. Such help is essential to the first-time reader, as the stream-of-consciousness style of Ulysses often makes it hard to understand whose thoughts you are reading, who or what a character is thinking about, and whether what is being described is happening in the scene or only in the character's head. Getting disoriented in the fog of thought is essential to the experience of Ulysses, which yields unparalleled insight into the subjective odyssey of human experience, but getting completely lost is not necessary or desirable. Moments of clarification among the confusion of waves, islands of logic on a vast sea full of digressive eddies, are a welcome and needed respite for the weary traveler. Blamires provides this respite.
Blamires' book is a pleasure to read in itself and provides just enough detail to clarify the main plot points and the allusions that are most significant to the book's overarching themes. When Blamires extends his explication beyond the plot of Ulysses, he most often delves into thematic content related to three sources: Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare's works (especially Hamlet), and Catholic theology. This is an important focus because these foundational reference points for Joyce are key to a broad understanding of this great book and the intellectual and emotional currents that flow through it. Blamires also explains other historic and literary references, but only when their relevance to the understanding of Ulysses is more than trivial. This prevents the reader from getting bogged down, as can happen with extremely detailed texts like Gifford's Ulysses Annotated. Conversely, many online summaries that are much more succinct than Blamires' also leave out information that is non-trivial and leave significant gaps in understanding. The Bloomsday Book strikes just the right balance of summarization and detail.
While I sometimes disagreed with his interpretations, I found Blamires' reasoning for the most part to be convincing and crystal clear, facilitating epiphany and amplifying Ulysses' emotional resonance. His exploration of the symbolism of water and his explication of the theme of fathers and sons were particularly helpful, though my favorite topic in his book was that of "one-eyed" versus "two-eyed" perspective. With this topic, Blamires clarified what was not only a source of confusion for me as I read Ulysses, but also as I read Portrait of the Artist earlier in the year: whether we're supposed to take these characters, who are sometimes so heroic and sometimes so cowardly, sometimes so foolish and sometimes so wise, as worthy of admiration. Blamires writes:
"Joyce's peculiar quality as an artist is that he rejected all one-eyed outlooks. In Portrait of the Artist he refuses to take his hero at his own valuation. While one eye sees with Stephen in deep sympathy, the other eye judges Stephen's egoism and vanity. This two-eyed view is persistent in Joyce. He will never totally surrender himself or his reader to a single mood or style: the tragic and the comic moods exist side by side; poetic and 'vulgar' styles are intertwined. The one-eyed-two-eyed dichotomy may yet have a good deal to tell us about Ulysses."
This clarification of Joyce's intent not only helped me understand Ulysses, but also intensified its impact. Many times, I have been guilty of pursuing a one-eyed view of life, thinking certainty a reflection of truth. Joyce and Blamires have helped me understand why this has never worked: truth includes everything. You don't come to wisdom by charting a course with "either/or," you do so by seeing the "and" between the disparate, and often seemingly contradictory, things you encounter.
No other supportive text did as much as The Bloomsday Book to clear up my confusion and correct my mistaken conclusions about Ulysses. Each summary brought me back to the main text with renewed curiosity and wonder. I got so much more out of Ulysses than I would have without this book, and am grateful I had it by my side.
The main purpose of this book is to summarize and clarify Ulysses chapter by chapter. Such help is essential to the first-time reader, as the stream-of-consciousness style of Ulysses often makes it hard to understand whose thoughts you are reading, who or what a character is thinking about, and whether what is being described is happening in the scene or only in the character's head. Getting disoriented in the fog of thought is essential to the experience of Ulysses, which yields unparalleled insight into the subjective odyssey of human experience, but getting completely lost is not necessary or desirable. Moments of clarification among the confusion of waves, islands of logic on a vast sea full of digressive eddies, are a welcome and needed respite for the weary traveler. Blamires provides this respite.
Blamires' book is a pleasure to read in itself and provides just enough detail to clarify the main plot points and the allusions that are most significant to the book's overarching themes. When Blamires extends his explication beyond the plot of Ulysses, he most often delves into thematic content related to three sources: Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare's works (especially Hamlet), and Catholic theology. This is an important focus because these foundational reference points for Joyce are key to a broad understanding of this great book and the intellectual and emotional currents that flow through it. Blamires also explains other historic and literary references, but only when their relevance to the understanding of Ulysses is more than trivial. This prevents the reader from getting bogged down, as can happen with extremely detailed texts like Gifford's Ulysses Annotated. Conversely, many online summaries that are much more succinct than Blamires' also leave out information that is non-trivial and leave significant gaps in understanding. The Bloomsday Book strikes just the right balance of summarization and detail.
While I sometimes disagreed with his interpretations, I found Blamires' reasoning for the most part to be convincing and crystal clear, facilitating epiphany and amplifying Ulysses' emotional resonance. His exploration of the symbolism of water and his explication of the theme of fathers and sons were particularly helpful, though my favorite topic in his book was that of "one-eyed" versus "two-eyed" perspective. With this topic, Blamires clarified what was not only a source of confusion for me as I read Ulysses, but also as I read Portrait of the Artist earlier in the year: whether we're supposed to take these characters, who are sometimes so heroic and sometimes so cowardly, sometimes so foolish and sometimes so wise, as worthy of admiration. Blamires writes:
"Joyce's peculiar quality as an artist is that he rejected all one-eyed outlooks. In Portrait of the Artist he refuses to take his hero at his own valuation. While one eye sees with Stephen in deep sympathy, the other eye judges Stephen's egoism and vanity. This two-eyed view is persistent in Joyce. He will never totally surrender himself or his reader to a single mood or style: the tragic and the comic moods exist side by side; poetic and 'vulgar' styles are intertwined. The one-eyed-two-eyed dichotomy may yet have a good deal to tell us about Ulysses."
This clarification of Joyce's intent not only helped me understand Ulysses, but also intensified its impact. Many times, I have been guilty of pursuing a one-eyed view of life, thinking certainty a reflection of truth. Joyce and Blamires have helped me understand why this has never worked: truth includes everything. You don't come to wisdom by charting a course with "either/or," you do so by seeing the "and" between the disparate, and often seemingly contradictory, things you encounter.
No other supportive text did as much as The Bloomsday Book to clear up my confusion and correct my mistaken conclusions about Ulysses. Each summary brought me back to the main text with renewed curiosity and wonder. I got so much more out of Ulysses than I would have without this book, and am grateful I had it by my side.
July 2, 2022
A useful guide to Ulysses--not an analysis of the themes or allusions James Joyce employs; rather, a page by page description of "what is actually happening" in the novel.
Acquired 1992
The Word, Montreal, Quebec
Acquired 1992
The Word, Montreal, Quebec
May 9, 2011
Literally, just a step-by-step walk through of Ulysses. (Oh, was it helpful though)
July 8, 2015
Only a partial credit for me. Helpful, but not essential. After I started rolling along I felt that going back to this between episodes was burdensome. 3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews