Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ulysses
James Joyce (1882–1941)
Read by Hugh McGuire, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), miette, Kristen McQuillin, Gord Mackenzie, Gesine, Kirsten Ferreri, Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Robert Foster, pheo · 39 chapters · 32 h 39
About the book
Over the course of a single day, the sixteenth of June 1904, two Dubliners cross paths and drift apart again. Leopold Bloom, an advertising canvasser with a curious mind, wanders the city while his thoughts wander further still. Stephen Dedalus, a young teacher and would-be poet, carries his own restlessness through the same streets. Around them swirl funerals, newspaper offices, pubs, libraries, beaches and a brothel, each chapter written in a style of its own. James Joyce turned an ordinary day into a vast comic and moving portrait of a city and its inhabitants. This LibriVox version is a group project in an unusual spirit: the volunteers recorded it with a pub-like atmosphere, which means you may hear background noise and shifting voices, and listeners should expect a lively, communal performance.
Introduction
James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish writer who spent most of his adult life abroad but never stopped writing about Dublin. Ulysses, published in book form in 1922 after appearing in parts in a magazine, is his best-known work and one of the landmarks of modernist fiction. It follows its characters through a single day in 1904, and its structure loosely echoes Homer's Odyssey, with Leopold Bloom as a modern-day wanderer and Stephen Dedalus as a kind of searching son.
The book has a reputation for difficulty, and it is true that its style changes sharply from chapter to chapter, taking in stream of consciousness, parody, catechism and theatrical script. Yet it is also very funny, and it pays close attention to the small physical and emotional details of everyday life. It was banned or restricted in several countries for years, and it has since become one of the most studied novels in the English language.
This recording has thirty-nine sections and lasts more than thirty-two hours. It was made by a large group of LibriVox volunteers, and the project was handled in a looser way than usual: group readings and pub-style background noise were welcomed, and no editing was required, so listeners may notice small variations from the printed text. That spirit suits a book so interested in voices, talk and crowds. It is an ambitious companion for a long journey, or for anyone who wants to try Joyce by ear.
Public domain
James Joyce died in 1941: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text