Ulysses

Penguin Classics

By: James Joyce, Declan Kiberd - introduction

Narrated by: Patrick Gibson

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Patrick Gibson, known for his roles in The OA, The Tudors and The Passing Bells. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Declan Kiberd

'Everybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century' Anthony Burgess, Observer

Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and even been deemed blasphemous, but remains an undisputed modernist classic: ceaselessly inventive, garrulous, funny, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive. It confirms Joyce's belief that literature 'is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man'.

'The most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape' T. S. Eliot

'Intoxicating ... a towering work, in its word play surpassing even Shakespeare' Guardian

Monotone like

This is not a very vibrant reading. This book needs a vibrant reading. Very hypnotic, unfortunately.

The performance was very difficult to follow

I was looking forward to this classic. It begins with a multi hour “class” on what the book is about. I got used to that and could understand that narration. I wished the same performer would have read the book. The book narration was immediately impossible for me to understand or follow due to a mixture of variables including enunciation, whispering, mumbling, and all with a very thick Irish brogue. I gave up, hopelessly lost, hours into the book and I’m very disappointed to not have been able to understand and follow the words of the author, which was my goal. I hate to complain - ever - but I did not understand anything once the actual book started.