Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaume on December 28, 2009 at 5:07am

Joycephiliac here.

Finnegans Wake is indeed a "book of many attempts." I never even tried to read it sequentially, I usually open it at random, read a few dozens pages, add notes and post-its, and put it to rest for a while.

If you're bilingual, bouncing between translations can be a great experience (the French Lavergne's translation is a masterpiece of its own.)

Permalink Reply by Glenn Sogge on January 1, 2010 at 9:57am

A couple of my favorite quotes: Television kills telephony in brothers broil and Wipe your glosses with what you know.

It's been about thirty years since I read FW (twice.) Probably getting about time to do it again (like I do with One Hundred Years of Solitude and Huckleberry Finn.)

FW and Ulysses are the only Joyce I've read. What order would you recommend reading the earlier works?

Permalink Reply by Jaume on January 1, 2010 at 2:20pm

If you're an 'evolutionist', I suggest reading Stephen Hero before the Portrait (as I did.)

If you didn't read it already, you might start with Ellmann's biography of Joyce. A must read.

Permalink Reply by Glenn Sogge on January 1, 2010 at 2:51pm

I've heard great things about the Ellmann. It's always been on my "one of these days" lists.

Where should Dubliners, Exiles, Giacomo Joyce, and the poetry fit in? Or should I just assume that basic chronology is the plan to follow?

Permalink Reply by Jaume on January 1, 2010 at 6:03pm

If you've read FW and Ulysses already, besides the ones I listed I'd say you can read the other novels and short stories in any order you see fit. I haven't read all the poetry - yet.

Permalink Reply by bob on January 31, 2010 at 8:48pm

Ulysses has proven to be my Waterloo, I've finished Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest, but have yet to get through Ulysses...I'm aiming for Bloom's Day of this year...but that's what I said last year. I've read Portrait and Dubliners and enjoyed loved them both.