No matter what list you pick, whether it’s the greatest books in the English language, the greatest novels of all times, Ulysses is within the top ten of all lists, and at the very top of many.
I bought the book when I was a young man and never could get into it. I tried to read it again now. I cannot.
In my estimation, it is not readable. How can a book be the greatest book of all time, if the only people that have ever read it did so as a class assignment, and claim that it was utterly hard work? Quite frankly, I do not know anyone, with the possible exception of Eric P – see comments here, who has actually read this thing.
I had put aside The Count of Monte Cristo to tackle Ulysses, and after many days of trying, I went back to The Count. Sorry, James Joyce. The professors of literature may love you, but I take Dumas before you any time.
Great title. I know how you feel. I started and stopped many times, then read through it like I was digging a ditch.
And even then, I had to have the help of a great BBC condensed audio-book version in four cassettes. If I had not become familiar with the structure of the work, and many of its most famous lines, read by first class BBC actors, I would never have gotten done. With the ditch digging.