James Joyce's Ulysses

This book contains eighteen original essays by leading Joyce scholars on the eighteen separate chapters of "Ulysses". It attempts to explore the richness of Joyce's extraordinary novel more fully than could be done by any single scholar. Joyce's habit of using, when writing each chapter in "Ulysses", a particular style, tone, point of view, and narrative structure gives each contributor a special set of problems with which to engage, problems which coincide in every case with certain of his special interests. The essays in this volume complement and illuminate one another to provide the most comprehensive account yet published of Joyce's many-sided masterpiece.

"A landmark in interpretation. . . . Never have Joyce's polytropic techniques been explicated with such thoroughness, sensitivity, and sympathy. The result is an achievement of new perspectives. . . . These writers have achieved the seemingly impossible feat of reading Ulysses afresh. , "Some of the best scholars in the field take a fresh look at Joyce's novel. . . . The collection offers much to evoke the interest of even the most jaded Joyce devotee. It should not be overlooked by any serious scholar of Ulysses.", "The essays are remarkably uniform in quality, and consistently reflect a determined effort to move beyond mere explication and develop general notions about the art and meaning of Ulysses through close examination of specific passages within individual chapters. A well planned, effectively executed 'appreciation' in the best sense of the term, this important volume should prove a very valuable addition to any collection serving serious readers of Joyce."

David Hayman is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.