ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY

by Richard Ellman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1972

Richard Aldington made the worst critical gaffe of the century when he spoke of Ulysses as demonstrating Joyce's ""great undisciplined talent."" Surely there has never been a work more consciously wrought, more weighty in structure and cross-cultural significance. Perhaps had a day in the life of Leopold Bloom been less disciplined it might have won far more readers and far less scholarly exegeses. The latest probe by Professor Ellmann has a number of brainy chapters with gamy titles: ""Why Stephen Dedalus Picks His Nose"" or ""Why Molly Bloom Menstruates."" Stephen picks his nose for the same reason he urinates, considering both ""as his heroic duty to carry off all the filthy streams, to acknowledge corruption."" So, too, Molly when she menstruates. ""It is human blood, not divine. Menstruation is Promethean."" These comments by Professor Ellmann, typical of the study as a whole, may seem a very involved way of saying that, in his vision of life, Joyce was earthy and Aristotelian rather than mystical and Platonic. But, of course, Ulysses, in its mythic patterns, evokes not only the clear classic design of Homer's Odyssey; it parallels, as well, the medieval elements of Dante, the cyclical theories of Vico, the philosophical contrarieties of Bruno and Blake and Shelley and Yeats. Thus, Ellmann's interpretation is inevitably complex, accenting the affirmative and comic aspects of Ulysses, and concentrating on four levels of meaning: the literal, the ethical, the aesthetic, and the anagogic. It is brilliantly done. Still, in works of this sort, how often the reader longs for the celebration of art, rather than cerebration about symbols or themes or a passing phrase which ""connects Bloom for a moment to Christ.

Pub Date: April 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION