-
Ulysses
- Narrated by: Jim Norton
- Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $63.90
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
-
-
The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
-
The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
- By: Patrick Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers and listeners of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader or listener of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel.
-
-
Very helpful
- By Demoyung on 01-24-24
By: Patrick Hastings
-
Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: William Hootkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
-
-
Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
- By Jessica on 02-18-09
By: Herman Melville
-
Dubliners
- Penguin Classics
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joyce's first major work, written when he was only 25, brought his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. He writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.
-
-
Audible version of The Dubliners
- By Frequent Flyer Reader on 11-01-19
By: James Joyce
-
Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
-
-
My Fourth Try at an Audible Quixote
- By James on 12-24-12
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
-
What in the heck happened?????
- By Melinda on 02-05-14
By: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
-
Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
-
-
The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
-
The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
- By: Patrick Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers and listeners of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader or listener of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel.
-
-
Very helpful
- By Demoyung on 01-24-24
By: Patrick Hastings
-
Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: William Hootkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
-
-
Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
- By Jessica on 02-18-09
By: Herman Melville
-
Dubliners
- Penguin Classics
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joyce's first major work, written when he was only 25, brought his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. He writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.
-
-
Audible version of The Dubliners
- By Frequent Flyer Reader on 11-01-19
By: James Joyce
-
Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
-
-
My Fourth Try at an Audible Quixote
- By James on 12-24-12
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
-
What in the heck happened?????
- By Melinda on 02-05-14
By: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
-
In Search of Lost Time (Dramatized)
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: James Wilby, Jonathan Firth, Harriet Walter, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Featuring a fictional version of himself - 'Marcel' - and a host of friends, acquaintances, and lovers, In Search of Lost Time is Proust's search for the key to the mysteries of memory, time, and consciousness. As he recalls his childhood days, the sad affair of Charles Swann and Odette de Crecy, his transition to manhood, the tortures of love and the ravages of war, he realises that the simplest of discoveries can lead to astonishing possibilities.
-
-
Proust Snapshot
- By Wendy on 05-06-14
By: Marcel Proust
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
Gravity's Rainbow
- By: Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller - cover design
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
-
-
"Time to touch the person next to you"
- By Jefferson on 07-04-16
By: Thomas Pynchon, and others
-
Infinite Jest
- By: David Foster Wallace
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 56 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.
-
-
Removing Endnotes Does NOT Equal Unabridged!
- By Darwin8u on 04-11-12
-
For Whom the Bell Tolls
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight", For Whom the Bell Tolls.
-
-
Don't "Clean Up" Hemingway
- By John W. Aldis, MD on 08-13-09
By: Ernest Hemingway
-
Dubliners (Naxos Edition)
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Norton
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the lives of the people of Dublin around the turn of the century. Each story describes a small but significant moment of crisis or revelation in the life of a particular Dubliner, sympathetically but always with stark honesty. Many of the characters are desperate to escape the confines of their humdrum lives, though those that have the opportunity to do so seem unable to take it.
-
-
Good reading, a little slow
- By Tad on 09-03-08
By: James Joyce
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
-
In Search of Lost Time
- A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: full cast, Derek Jacobi, Frances Barber, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Waking in the small hours, Marcel Proust embarks on a retrospective journey, endeavouring to capture the elusive moments that shaped his life. A sip of tea and the taste of a madeleine prompt further recollections, and the floodgates of memory open, pouring forth a torrent of vivid reminiscences.
-
-
Before reading the longest novel every written
- By Fiat Lumen on 01-28-23
By: Marcel Proust
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.
-
-
Need to Disclose and Highlight Name of Translator
- By Charles B on 08-27-18
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Satanic Verses
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel’s publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie’s comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery of language. The book begins with two Indians plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their airliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations.
-
-
Use an audiobook to really enjoy Satanic Verses
- By David Edelberg on 11-24-12
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
-
-
How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
Publisher's summary
While Bloom's passionate wife, Molly, conducts yet another illicit liasion (with her concert manager), Bloom finds himself getting into arguments with drunken nationalists and wild carousing with excitable medical students, before rescuing Stephen Dedalus from a brawl and returning with him to his own basement kitchen.
In the hands of Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan, experienced and stimulating Joycean readers, and carefully directed by Roger Marsh, Ulysses becomes accessible as never before. It is entertaining, immediate, funny, and rich in classical, philosophical, and musical allusion.
Critic reviews
- Audie Award Finalist, Classics, 2005
"As ambitious and rewarding an audio production as any that exists, an audio experience that truly deserves to be cherished....Readers of Ulysses have long been encouraged to read out loud the more difficult sections for added comprehension and enjoyment of the language. Now, thanks to Naxos, the entire book is available in a performance to savor. It is safe to say that anyone wanting to experience the preeminent work of modern fiction has in this package the perfect audio companion." (AudioFile)
Related to this topic
-
The Magician of Lublin
- By: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Narrated by: Larry Keith
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Magician can dazzle the crowds with his sleight of hand, climb to any height, open any lock. Fearlessly, he does death-defying tricks in theaters all over Poland. At home, his sweet Jewish wife waits for him to return from the city. In the city, his adoring mistresses wait for him to return from home. He holds the key to all hearts, but his own is beset with confusion.
-
-
Complex Masterpiece
- By Evan on 09-11-08
-
At Swim-Two-Birds
- By: Flann O’Brien
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, At Swim-Two-Birds is the story of a young, lazy, and frequently drunk Irish college student who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin. When not in bed (where he seems to spend most of his time) or reading, he is composing a mischief-filled novel about Dermot Trellis, a second-rate author whose characters ultimately rebel against him and seek vengeance. From drugging him as he sleeps to dropping the ceiling on his head, these figures of Irish myth make Trellis pay dearly for his bad writing.
-
-
Worth waiting for
- By Ken Watkins on 02-04-20
By: Flann O’Brien
-
Cocaine Blues
- By: Kerry Greenwood
- Narrated by: Stephanie Daniel
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But she becomes bored with London and the endless round of parties. In search of excitement, she sets her sights on a spot of detective work in Melbourne, Australia. And so mystery and the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse, appear in her life. From then on it's all cocaine and communism until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
-
-
A series that just gets better
- By Barbara Kindle Customer on 02-01-11
By: Kerry Greenwood
-
The Darwin Affair
- A Novel
- By: Tim Mason
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later - and only a block away - Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin's target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? Soon, Field's investigation exposes a shocking conspiracy in which the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a diabolical madman.
-
-
Dickensian “Jack the Ripper”
- By Kate on 07-14-19
By: Tim Mason
-
First Love
- By: Ivan Turgenev
- Narrated by: David Troughton
- Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of a dinner party, the remaining guests drink wine and tell stories of their first love. For one of them, it will be a dark journey into his past, reawakening unbearable memories of his obsession with the beautiful Zinaida.
-
-
Turgenev's Famous Novel...
- By Douglas on 01-16-14
By: Ivan Turgenev
-
Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Eliot's first full-length novel is the moving, realistic portrait of three people troubled by unwise love. Adam Bede is a hardy young carpenter who cares for his aging mother. His one weakness is the woman he loves blindly: the trifling town beauty, Hetty Sorrel, who delights only in her baubles - and the delusion that the careless Captain Donnithorne may ask for her hand.
-
-
Country tragedy and country humor
- By Tad Davis on 03-08-15
By: George Eliot
-
The Magician of Lublin
- By: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Narrated by: Larry Keith
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Magician can dazzle the crowds with his sleight of hand, climb to any height, open any lock. Fearlessly, he does death-defying tricks in theaters all over Poland. At home, his sweet Jewish wife waits for him to return from the city. In the city, his adoring mistresses wait for him to return from home. He holds the key to all hearts, but his own is beset with confusion.
-
-
Complex Masterpiece
- By Evan on 09-11-08
-
At Swim-Two-Birds
- By: Flann O’Brien
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, At Swim-Two-Birds is the story of a young, lazy, and frequently drunk Irish college student who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin. When not in bed (where he seems to spend most of his time) or reading, he is composing a mischief-filled novel about Dermot Trellis, a second-rate author whose characters ultimately rebel against him and seek vengeance. From drugging him as he sleeps to dropping the ceiling on his head, these figures of Irish myth make Trellis pay dearly for his bad writing.
-
-
Worth waiting for
- By Ken Watkins on 02-04-20
By: Flann O’Brien
-
Cocaine Blues
- By: Kerry Greenwood
- Narrated by: Stephanie Daniel
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But she becomes bored with London and the endless round of parties. In search of excitement, she sets her sights on a spot of detective work in Melbourne, Australia. And so mystery and the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse, appear in her life. From then on it's all cocaine and communism until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
-
-
A series that just gets better
- By Barbara Kindle Customer on 02-01-11
By: Kerry Greenwood
-
The Darwin Affair
- A Novel
- By: Tim Mason
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later - and only a block away - Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin's target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? Soon, Field's investigation exposes a shocking conspiracy in which the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a diabolical madman.
-
-
Dickensian “Jack the Ripper”
- By Kate on 07-14-19
By: Tim Mason
-
First Love
- By: Ivan Turgenev
- Narrated by: David Troughton
- Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of a dinner party, the remaining guests drink wine and tell stories of their first love. For one of them, it will be a dark journey into his past, reawakening unbearable memories of his obsession with the beautiful Zinaida.
-
-
Turgenev's Famous Novel...
- By Douglas on 01-16-14
By: Ivan Turgenev
-
Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Eliot's first full-length novel is the moving, realistic portrait of three people troubled by unwise love. Adam Bede is a hardy young carpenter who cares for his aging mother. His one weakness is the woman he loves blindly: the trifling town beauty, Hetty Sorrel, who delights only in her baubles - and the delusion that the careless Captain Donnithorne may ask for her hand.
-
-
Country tragedy and country humor
- By Tad Davis on 03-08-15
By: George Eliot
-
Fifty-Two Stories
- 1883-1898
- By: Anton Chekhov, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the celebrated, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and War and Peace: a lavish, masterfully rendered volume of stories by one of the most influential short fiction writers of all time.
-
-
Annoying narrator
- By Mida on 07-01-20
By: Anton Chekhov, and others
-
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: A Radio Dramatization
- By: Charles Dickens, Jerry Robbins - dramatization
- Narrated by: J. T. Turner, The Colonial Radio Players
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Colonial Radio Theatre pulls out all the stops in this magnificent production of the Charles Dickens classic Christmas story! This full cast dramatization features a powerful music score - from the magnificent, booming opening of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to the frightening tones of "The Ghost of Christmas Future". It's a holiday treat both you and your family will enjoy for years to come.
-
-
great performance
- By Paul Pedraza on 11-23-22
By: Charles Dickens, and others
-
Madame Bovary
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Elaine Wise
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though he embodies neither wealth nor a lavish persona, Charles Bovary - a somewhat established doctor - takes a chance in marrying the young, vibrant, and ambitious farm girl Emma Rouault. At first, Emma is delighted to be married and away from her father's farm, but her thirst for the rich and ornate lifestyle that she witnesses other people living soon drives her away from her husband and into the arms of various suitors.
-
-
Madame Bovary doesn't disappoint
- By Arlene Olsen on 12-11-16
By: Gustave Flaubert
-
Les Misérables
- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 67 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Les Misérables is set in Paris after the French Revolution. In the sewers and backstreets, we encounter "the wolf-like tread of crime", and assassination for a few sous is all in a day's work. We weep with the unlucky and heart-broken Fantine, and we exult with the heroic revolutionaries of the barricades; but above all we thrill to the steadfast courage and nobility of soul of ex-convict Jean Valjean, always in danger from the relentless pursuit of the diabolical Inspector Javert.
-
-
Use earphones that are light on bass
- By Tad Davis on 11-08-15
By: Victor Hugo
-
Watt
- By: Samuel Beckett
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Watt tells the tale of Mr Knott's servant and his attempts to get to know his master. Watt's mistake is to derive the essence of his master from the accidentals of his being, and his painstakingly logical attempts to 'know' ultimately consign him to the asylum. Itself a critique of error, Watt has previously appeared in editions that are littered with mistakes, both major and minor.
-
-
An Exercise
- By jdk on 08-07-21
By: Samuel Beckett
-
Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
-
-
The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
-
The Golden Hour
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bahamas, 1941. Newly widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the duke and duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu imagines.
-
-
Stick with it!
- By Colleen on 07-17-19
By: Beatriz Williams
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
My Name Is Resolute
- By: Nancy E. Turner
- Narrated by: Mhairi Morrison
- Length: 25 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1729, and Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family in Jamaica and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister are sold into slavery in colonial New England and taught the trade of spinning and weaving. When Resolute finds herself alone in Lexington, Massachusetts, she struggles to find her way in a society that is quick to judge a young woman without a family. As the seeds of rebellion against England grow, Resolute is torn between following the rules and breaking free.
-
-
A life well lived!
- By Anonymous User on 06-20-23
By: Nancy E. Turner
-
Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
-
-
Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
-
Death in Venice
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A stunningly beautiful youth and the city of Venice set the stage for Thomas Mann’s introspective examination of erotic love and philosophical wisdom.
-
-
A problem with the narration
- By Erez on 03-19-12
By: Thomas Mann
-
The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 1
- By: Anton Chekhov
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, (1860-1904), was born in Russia at Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. His name has become synonymous with a certain literary style much admired and widely copied since his death. Typically, a Chekhov story is a "mood", a state of mind, usually with regard to relations between one person and another. Under the influence of the constant, infinitesimal, and unforeseen pinpricks of life, there occurs a gradual transformation of that state of mind.
-
-
A Box of Chocolates
- By Darlene on 02-08-05
By: Anton Chekhov
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Donal Donnelly
- Length: 42 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first authorized, unabridged release of this timeless classic and exclusively available from Recorded Books. Ulysses records the events of a single day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin, Ireland.
-
-
Ulysses is Life
- By Dan Harlow on 08-02-13
By: James Joyce
-
The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
- By: Patrick Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers and listeners of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader or listener of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel.
-
-
Very helpful
- By Demoyung on 01-24-24
By: Patrick Hastings
-
Ulysses (Dramatised)
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Stephen Rea
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother’s deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of ‘her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my soul.’ Timelessly evocative, Ulysses is far more than the story of Stephen Dedalus’ journey through Dublin.
-
-
Appreciating Ulysses for the first time
- By Mrs Whitney on 09-15-12
By: James Joyce
-
The James Joyce BBC Radio Collection
- Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man & Dubliners
- By: James Joyce, Gordon Bowker
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott, Frances Barber, full cast, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce - plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his life.
By: James Joyce, and others
-
Ulysses
- Penguin Classics
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Patrick Gibson
- Length: 32 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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'.
-
-
Monotone like
- By Cheryl Brooks on 03-22-23
By: James Joyce
-
The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
- By: Louis Markos, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Louis Markos
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
-
-
Basically a collection of sermons
- By Richard on 11-20-13
By: Louis Markos, and others
-
Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Donal Donnelly
- Length: 42 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first authorized, unabridged release of this timeless classic and exclusively available from Recorded Books. Ulysses records the events of a single day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin, Ireland.
-
-
Ulysses is Life
- By Dan Harlow on 08-02-13
By: James Joyce
-
The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
- By: Patrick Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers and listeners of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader or listener of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel.
-
-
Very helpful
- By Demoyung on 01-24-24
By: Patrick Hastings
-
Ulysses (Dramatised)
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Stephen Rea
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother’s deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of ‘her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my soul.’ Timelessly evocative, Ulysses is far more than the story of Stephen Dedalus’ journey through Dublin.
-
-
Appreciating Ulysses for the first time
- By Mrs Whitney on 09-15-12
By: James Joyce
-
The James Joyce BBC Radio Collection
- Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man & Dubliners
- By: James Joyce, Gordon Bowker
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott, Frances Barber, full cast, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce - plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his life.
By: James Joyce, and others
-
Ulysses
- Penguin Classics
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Patrick Gibson
- Length: 32 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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'.
-
-
Monotone like
- By Cheryl Brooks on 03-22-23
By: James Joyce
-
The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
- By: Louis Markos, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Louis Markos
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
-
-
Basically a collection of sermons
- By Richard on 11-20-13
By: Louis Markos, and others
-
Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 29 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joyce’s experimental masterpiece set a new standard for modernist fiction, pushing the English language past all previous thresholds in its quest to capture a day in the life of an Everyman in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Obliquely borrowing characters and situations from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce takes us on an internal odyssey along the current of thoughts, impressions, and experiences that make up the adventure of living an average day.
-
-
Pure Joyce
- By sleiii on 05-27-11
By: James Joyce
-
Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
-
-
The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
-
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Colin Farrell
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This quintessential coming-of-age novel describes the early life of Stephen Dedalus. It is set in Ireland during the 19th century, which was a time of emerging Irish nationalism and conservative Catholicism. Highly autobiographical in nature, the work is also notable for its being the first one in which Joyce uses innovative “stream of consciousness” writing style. A Portrait... follows Stephen Dedalus from his babyhood into early adulthood.
-
-
Bitterly disappointed
- By James on 01-29-19
By: James Joyce
-
Dubliners
- Penguin Classics
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Andrew Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joyce's first major work, written when he was only 25, brought his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. He writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.
-
-
Audible version of The Dubliners
- By Frequent Flyer Reader on 11-01-19
By: James Joyce
-
Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Norton, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though Ulysses is widely regarded as a "difficult" novel, this fresh and lively reading shows its comic genius as well as its great moments of poignance, making it more accessible than ever before.
-
-
Mumbling narration ruins Joyce masterpiece
- By Eric Chevlen on 06-15-04
By: James Joyce
-
The Ultimate James Joyce Collection: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 53 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ultimate James Joyce Collection comprises his works Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories first published in 1914.
-
-
This version did not help me with Ulysses
- By Ekaterina on 06-15-21
By: James Joyce
-
Dubliners
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Chris O'Dowd
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Form-defining short stories. First published in 1914, James Joyce defined what the short story could be with his collection The Dubliners. A mixture of prose and poetry, each story can be listened to independently, or as a collection. From childhood to maturity, we see what life - and ultimately death - can be, via an extraordinary cast of characters, all of whom experience an epiphany. There’s Father Flynn, the priest; Evelyn, the shop girl who dreams of escape; Mrs Mooney, the butcher’s daughter, who runs a boarding house.
-
-
Chris O’Dowd is brilliant!
- By Cadby on 02-09-23
By: James Joyce
-
Dubliners (Naxos Edition)
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Norton
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the lives of the people of Dublin around the turn of the century. Each story describes a small but significant moment of crisis or revelation in the life of a particular Dubliner, sympathetically but always with stark honesty. Many of the characters are desperate to escape the confines of their humdrum lives, though those that have the opportunity to do so seem unable to take it.
-
-
Good reading, a little slow
- By Tad on 09-03-08
By: James Joyce
-
In Search of Lost Time
- A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: full cast, Derek Jacobi, Frances Barber, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Waking in the small hours, Marcel Proust embarks on a retrospective journey, endeavouring to capture the elusive moments that shaped his life. A sip of tea and the taste of a madeleine prompt further recollections, and the floodgates of memory open, pouring forth a torrent of vivid reminiscences.
-
-
Before reading the longest novel every written
- By Fiat Lumen on 01-28-23
By: Marcel Proust
-
James Joyce
- Revised Edition
- By: Richard Ellman
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 37 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Ellmann has revised and expanded his definitive work on Joyce's life to include newly discovered primary material, including details of a failed love affair, a limerick about Samuel Beckett, a dream notebook, previously unknown letters, and much more.
-
-
Not Unabridged, Strictly Speaking
- By Charles B on 07-24-17
By: Richard Ellman
-
Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ulysses takes us on the journey of two men, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, through an hour-by-hour account of their lives for one day. These men cross paths in a series of coincidental events and listeners learn how interconnected they are even though they are not friends.
-
-
SPECTACULAR!
- By Mike on 12-06-16
By: James Joyce
-
In Search of Lost Time (Dramatized)
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: James Wilby, Jonathan Firth, Harriet Walter, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Featuring a fictional version of himself - 'Marcel' - and a host of friends, acquaintances, and lovers, In Search of Lost Time is Proust's search for the key to the mysteries of memory, time, and consciousness. As he recalls his childhood days, the sad affair of Charles Swann and Odette de Crecy, his transition to manhood, the tortures of love and the ravages of war, he realises that the simplest of discoveries can lead to astonishing possibilities.
-
-
Proust Snapshot
- By Wendy on 05-06-14
By: Marcel Proust
What listeners say about Ulysses
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Peter Deane
- 01-22-09
Ulysses (Unabridged)
This book was well worth the money and time invested - a master work which was read accurately and in keeping with the spirit and culture of the writer. The Irish accents of each character were deftly done and easy to identify for without the changes in irish dialect for different characters it would have been very difficult to follow - this book is like Shakespeare - easier followed when performed than when read. Some of the passages were in turn hilarious and disturbing - I was constantly impressed by the narrators skills. The book is NOT AN EASY LISTEN - it requires and deserves a lot of concentration which many folks wont be interested in giving it - it took me a long time to get through, but it was entirely worth it and I doubt if I would have had the stamina to read through the book. The narrators accents and infusion of life and character into the text were wonderful. I intend to listen to this one at least twice to get full richness of the work - Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
240 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Robert
- 06-01-09
let it flow!
The narration is flawless. NOT too fast... NOT mumbled...excellent modulation and everything...
The audio quality is excellent.
The writing is fascinating. It is not a novel which you try to "follow". If you do , you end up writing a negative review of it. The style is stream of consciousness, so you just let it flow in, through and around you.
I could never have read through the whole thing, so I'm grateful for this wonderful recording.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
175 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Chris Reich
- 07-27-09
Should be classified as art....
This is probably as close to perfection as an audio book can be. The narration is excellent. The music tracks are perfect. The production values outstanding.
This is no easy piece of writing to grasp. It takes some background study---read Dubliners and Portrait of an Artist and the Odyssey first. Study them. Then pick up a couple good commentaries on this book---forget the quick notes.
A lot of work? Sure. Enjoyable? It's an experience more than a listen. The writing is beyond masterful. There are passages and chapters that will touch your core---some will leave a scar. It's that good.
This audio book isn't for everyone. But again, it could not be better.
Chris Reich
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
117 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kim
- 07-11-13
More often discussed than read. I can see why...
Any additional comments?
First things first, hats off to Jim Norton for an inspired interpretation of what is not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. Norton at least makes it possible for the listener to, by and large, keep up with what's happening. Most of the time.
Look, I can see why people rave about the genius of the book. The wildly shifting narratives are blinding to keep up with, especially the stream-of-consciousness chapters, and it must be a special talent that can not only put us in these different peoples' heads, but also parallel Homer's Odyssey in the process. I'm not familiar with Homer and am not particularly inclined to investigate, but all this still could not distract me from the fact that very little of interest is ever actually happening. I think that might kind of be the point though.
At the end of the day, it was on my bucket list to get through this so I'm really glad that I did it. But I would never say this was even close to being a fun read or a riveting story, so I would only recommend this to people who want that sense of satisfaction you might get by having read the book that all that fuss was over.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
109 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ian
- 09-14-12
I should hate this - but I don't.
This book has all the things which annoy me about supposed "great" literature.
It is excessively poetic. (Not a fan of poetry).
It is wordy for the sake of it. (Big fan of directness).
There is relatively little direct narrative. (I like a plain and simple central thread).
Its full of clever devices. (Like my English not mucked about with)
But it is magnificent! I'm pretty sure that I didn't properly follow a lot of it but it doesn't matter. Some of the words made no sense but the sounded beautiful. Some of the scenes were meaningless to me but they were magic to listen to. The whole thing was a joy to listen to.
One of the other reviewers suggest that you should be familiar with this book in print before listening to this but I disagree. I suspect that if I had tried to read this from paper I would have made it t about page 12 before throwing it out of a window. It was made to be read out loud and if there is a better version available than this I'm not sure I would be able to cope with it.
Jim Norton gives each character just enough depth to make him distinguishable wthout creating any cartoon Irishmen in the process. There are a few sections read in a female voice. (Marcella Riordan - who should get a narrators credit). Double handed narration can be clumsy but this is perfectly judged. Overall - an excellent listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
104 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mike
- 09-12-08
dangit, man.
This is the most important book of the 20th century. It's complex, like thousand pages of poetry. James Joyce is a genius. But it's no light read. It's tough, something you have to work through slowly. It's complex, with sentence structure that is unfamiliar to Americans. So why the hell is the narrator reading it like it's a speed reading contest? I can barely understand his accent. I mean, I understand that you want to make it sound genuine, and the sentence structure is fitting for the Irish/Scottish sounds. I appreciate the amount of effort it must have taken for two people to team up and 'perform' this monstrous endeavor. But really, slow the down. I'm no novice. I've read all of Ayn Rand's audio books. My vocabulary power is just fine, and my ability to comprehend audio books is also par. But with this one, I'm a couple hundred pages in and couldn't tell you what the main character's names are or when it's set... were you afraid you'd run out of time? We could have had a part 5. I wouldn't have minded. Just read the book next time. Don't give me the slurry, bunched together, overly fast accent when I'm trying to stomach a project like Ulysses. This is the first book I've ever given up on with Audible. I'm mad I paid for it, and now I'm looking for another when I haven't finished part 1.
-Shu
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
81 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Michael J. Cox
- 09-30-09
Nothing could be finer
This is an epic to savor, a recording of such quality, read with such care, that I am NOT looking forward to the day when I hear the final words. Jim Norton makes the work of comprehending the many-layered references palatable and enjoyable; his various accents and characterizations allowed me to differentiate the different narratives; and his warmth and elocution made it a riveting experience. I highly recommend this book. In addition, let me say that you will get even more from it if you also order, from The Teaching Company (online), a series of 24 lectures by Professor James Heffernan of Dartmouth College on Joyce's Ulysses. I won't give the URL here, but it's easy enough to find. WIth the unabridged Naxos audiobook and the lectures, you will have an enriching, if somewhat exhausting, educational experience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
76 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Tad Davis
- 10-29-08
Musical in more than one sense
I've listened to several versions of this novel (or parts of them), including one by Donal Donelly and the newer one by John Lee; and while they all have their points of interest, this one captures the music best. I mean that literally: when one of the characters sings, Jim Norton sings too, rather than repeating the lyrics in sing-song fashion; and period music, including a number of titles specifically mentioned in the text, are scattered throughout. Norton has an incredible ability to mimic different characters in dialogue.
There are two flaws, but I can't bring myself to detract from the overall rating for either of them. First, the text used is an older one and includes a few misprints. Second, Jim Norton's volume varies considerably between the narrative and the dialogue. At times the narrative is almost whispered, and at times the dialogue is almost shouted. I found myself reaching often for the volume button. Even with that, though, Norton has one of the most pleasingly vibrant voices I've heard on any audiobook.
If you're going to tackle this book, have some kind of study guide at hand. It doesn't have to be TOO scholarly -- even SparkNotes will get you through some of the rougher patches. Or have the text itself to read along.
And don't forget to laugh. Despite its apparently pointless meandering through the streets of Dublin, this is one of the funniest books ever written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
73 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gabe
- 12-07-14
A unique sort of awful
Would you try another book from James Joyce and/or Jim Norton?
Norton, yes. Joyce, no.
What three words best describe Jim Norton’s voice?
Norton is an excellent guide to a terrible book.
What character would you cut from Ulysses?
James Joyce, both as Daedalus and as the author of the book.
Any additional comments?
Like a herd of dictionaries contracted norwalk virus and then stampeded themselves to death over a marathon-length course, spilling their contents in a random slurry along the way. They intermittently run out of grammar and punctuation. Finding meaning in this book is like finding the face of Jesus on your muffin.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
62 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Victoria
- 05-01-09
Extraordinary!!!!!!
I have never heard a better reading of a novel than this amazing version of Ulysses. What a great reading! The spoken word brings this work so vividly to life, with all its accents, inflections, stage directions, and the music of the language. It is actually easier to follow and understand than reading the book itself. An unforgettable, wonderful experience! Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
60 people found this helpful