The New Bloomsday Book (Routledge International Studies in)

The 'Bloomsday Book' is not a line-by-line commentary, and thank heaven! It is aimed at the first-time reader who, though intelligent enough to stumble through the extraordinary and complex work of art that is Ulysses without total failure, yet is lost enough to want a brief and acute summary of both the literal events of the plot and some of the deeper significances. Indeed, as many reviews have complained, Blamires's criticism may be a little dated, but it certainly is interesting to read and is often quite insightful; no-one is compelling you to accept all his interpretations, and the summary, aside from the criticism, is quite reason enough to acquire this book to accompany a first reading of Ulysses for someone who is not already a Joyce scholar. I used Blamires in a seminar on Ulysses in the semester past, and found it invaluable: I found it very satisfactory to begin with a swift but not careless reading of a chapter, then to read Blamires's summary, then to go through it again slowly, this time making notes. No-one should go his life without reading Ulysses; and 'The New Bloomsday Book' is an excellent way of making the novel accessible to those who are at first frightened off.

I was determined to finally get through Ulysses, and this was an excellent guide, helping me along the way. I found reading the corresponding chapter before reading the actual chapter in book itself gave me enough details to have a basic understanding of each chapter, at the same time, it was so long that is was a chore reading itself. Highly recommend to anyone who needs a little help getting through this classic. It won't answer all your questions, but it will give you an idea as to what is going on.

If you are reading Ulysses for the first time, I highly recommend you read Jeri Johnson's excellent and (almost) comprehensive introduction  Ulysses (Oxford World's Classics)  and consult her excellent notes, with introductory headnotes at the beginning of each chapter, as you wish. She has in mind as her audience the person who is about to read Ulysses for the first time. You may want to read the Gabler "restored" edition, but it is worth having Johnson's 1922 edition as well to see what Gabler introduces in his edition--chapter numbers, and chapter numbers at the bottom of each page, typographic changes, and so on. Now to Balmires. By all means, get it. Balmires published his guide in 1966. At that time, Ulysses still needed defenders given the number of attacks on its incomprehensibility. So Balmires is trying to defend the book by making it readable (turning it into something like a Victorian novel), consistent, and coherent. Balmires also alerts the reader to what he takes to be symbols in the novel as well. The guide is mostly a CliffsNotes chapter by chapter plot summary keyed to the Oxford, Random House and Penguin editions. The summaries can be useful since you may have missed something or some things in your first reading. Balmires's most valuable contributions are in sentences he puts in parentheses. And Balmires also gives translations of all German, French, Italian, Greek , and Latin words in Ulysses as well as many of Joyce's sources. For all of these reasons, I recommend the guide. However, I consider the guide to be most valuable if considered as an example of how NOT to read Ulysses because it comes so close to destroying the novel in order to save it. Balmires rides roughshod over everything that makes the novel difficult to read--like the lack of punctuation--in order to paraphrase it. Similarly, Balmires falsifies the novel by trying to make it more coherent than it is. For example, he repeatedly draws analogies between Daedalus and Hamlet when Hamlet is not mentioned in the novel instead of commenting on the moments where Hamlet actually does come up. Similarly, Balmires will assert that such and such is a symbol of y, as if the novel were an allegory. It is not. You may also want to get  Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses  and use it as a reference work to consult as needed. Gifford gives you WAY too much information, way too much to make it virtually impossible to read the novel and his annotations on it at the same time. Johnson strikes the perfect balance in her notes, giving you the sources of allusions and quotations, translations, and additional information as needed and only as needed.

There’s SO much critical and explanatory material out there related to Ulysses; it’s easy to become overwhelmed. This is exactly the right amount of information. In each section he sketches out the plot, briefly explains the references and translates the Latin, etc. phrases. If you want to go deeper, other sources abound. But this book will get you through THAT one; it’s just the guide was hoping it would be.

The perfect companion for a first reader of Ulysses. Holds your hand enough to keep you from flying away in the verbal whirlwind, but not so tightly that you don't leave the ground.There are a few printing errors, like pages 105 and 106 being swapped. But maybe that's all part of the fun.

Let's be honest, Ulysses is no easy task. Yes, it's literary genius but it can be tough going at times. It's nice to know that on days where your concentration may not be at the levels you need to grab the language of Ulysses by the lapels, you have Bloomsday by your side which can serve as your translator.

I got the New Bloomsday book at my professor's recommendation for her class on James Joyce. While it was not required for the course and some may not need the extra help in divining the meaning of the Ulysses, it has helped me tremendously. It helps the reader understand the various references in the text and their significance, while still allowing the reader to think critically for themselves about each episode in the Ulysses.

This book is a good start. Sometimes I did not understand it. Most of the time I did. I find it amazing that professors devote a whole semester to understand this book.

My second reading of Ulysses. I first time I read it without a guide and found it very difficult but read this recommended guide and it made my understanding of the novel easier . I read the appropriate section of the guide and then read the pages of the novel they applied to. My publication of the novel didn’t line up with the page references of the guide,which some people may find irritating ,so this is something to bear in mind . I knew this before purchase so was’t disappointed . It was simple enough to line the two up .

At times reading Ulysses can be a huge challenge and this was an excellent companion book which helped to make sense of the obscure parts of the text. I thought it unusual that it did not give translations of some of the foreign language and other references that are made in the book.

The Bloomsday book is invaluable if you'd like to understand Ulysses on the first read rather than the third or fourth. Intricately detailed but amazingly concise. Blamires does not use an unnecessary word throughout -- it is clear he could write a book on each chapter alone, but he just scratches the surface of everything, giving a very well-rounded view and leaving the reader to choose what they'd like to study deeper. There is endless material written on this book, a Google Scholar search of anything he mentions will grant endless reading should you wish. I paired Bloomsday with the Jim Norton audiobook for my first time and I have to say it was the best reading experience of my life.

I would never have been able to get so much from reading Ulysses unaided. But having so much pointed out and more alluded to, really gives you more to look out for on subsequent readings ofUlysses. Such as, without any spoiler alerts, a character such as Mulligan. The New Bloomsday Book was really worth the asking price. You get even more revelations when this book is used in conjuction with 'Ulysses Annotated' by Don Gifford.I am glad I bought both these books, you will be glad too.

Would have missed so much if i had not used a guide when reading