Product Description

Here substantially revised and expanded, Don Gifford's annotations to Joyce's great modern classic comprise a specialized encyclopedia that will inform any reading of Ulysses. Annotations in this edition are keyed both to the reading text of the new critical edition of Ulysses published in 1984 and to the standard 1961 Random House edition and the current Modern Library and Vintage texts.
Gifford has incorporated over 1,000 additions and corrections to the first edition. The introduction and headnotes to sections provide general geographical, biographical and historical background. The annotations gloss place names, define slang terms, give capsule histories of institutions and political and cultural movements and figures, supply bits of local and Irish legend and lore, explain religious nomenclature and practices, trace literary allusions and references to other cultures.
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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114520 in Books
• Published on: 1989-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 698 pages

Review
"A truly useful book in its explanation of puns, jokes, foreign phrases, and a myriad of other items including many helpful glosses on terms belonging to the vernacular of Dublin. For this last item alone the book is valuable because it documents much of the popular but fading idiom of the Dublin of 1904." -- Jay Fox, Modern Fiction Studies

"[Ulysses Annotated] teaches more than how to read a particular novel; it teaches us more profoundly how to read anything. This, I think, is the book's main virtue. It teaches us readers how to transform the brute fact of our world." -- Robert N. Ross, Western Humanities Review

From the Inside Flap
"Teaches more than how to read a particular novel; it teaches us more profoundly how to read anything. This, I think, is the book's main virtue. It teaches us readers to transform the brute fact of our world."--Hugh Kenner

From the Back Cover
"Teaches more than how to read a particular novel; it teaches us more profoundly how to read anything. This, I think, is the book's main virtue. It teaches us readers to transform the brute fact of our world." (Hugh Kenner)

Customer Reviews

Great reading, even without the source
This book was a shock to me. It's not just a book of annotations, it's also a history of Ireland, literature, language, and nearly everything else Joyce decided to allude to in his masterpiece. I never would have guessed that just reading the annotations (without the source text) would make good reading, but that is certainly the case here. You do not by any means need this book to enjoy Ulysses, but it does give remarkable insight into the mind behind it

Essential is the key word to all these reviews
When I first tucked James Joyce's ULYSSES under my arm, Don Gifford's ULYSSES ANNOTATED was tucked under the other. (My biceps became very well developed because of this.) It took me an entire summer to read the books side by side but how worthwhile it was. Gifford's essential line by line, almost word by word, guidance made ULYSSES less overwhelming than if I had tried to tackle it alone. Once I got through ULYSSES the second time (the following spring) I was able to go to the more overarching analyses of Joyce's masterpiece. Stuart Gilbert's ULYSSES and Richard Ellmann's ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY were particularly helpful.

notes only!
Just a heads up that this is NOT an annotated edition of Ulysses (as I mistakenly thought in purchasing)(duh). It is 600-some pages of notes only and does not include the text of the novel.