Don Gifford, Robert J. Seidman
Notes for Joyce: An Annotation of James Joyce's "Ulysses".
E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974. First edition. 0525473149 xiv/554 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 7" x 9.75", is bound in green cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Stain appears in upper outside corner of front cover (and in corresponding place on dust jacket). Book and dust jacket otherwise show very light shelfwear, with solid binding, clean and bright interior. Dust jacket, with price of $14.95 on front flap, is preserved in mylar cover.
"The primary intention of the notes in this volume is pedagogical - to provide a specialized encyclopedia that will inform a more understanding reading of "Ulysses". The rule of thumb followed is to annotate all items not available in standard desk dictionaries. It is these annotations that will open the reader the vast world of history, theology, philosophy, science, literature, and the arts that Joyce drew upon when weaving the complex fabric of his masterpiece. Quite as important, however, and revealed here for the first time in fullest detail, is Joyce's heavy dependence for his vocabularies on the vernacular and verbal worlds of Dublin in 1904. These worlds include Dublin slang and gossip, anecdotal (as against formal) history, and various phases of popular literature and culture. Also, the book identifies the "Dublin street furniture" - streets, bridges, houses, buildings, pubs, and shops - which fascinated Joyce and of which he used such vast amounts to flesh out the "character" of Dublin in the novel.
The annotated passages are presented in sequence, and thus the book is designed to be laid open beside "Ulysses" and to be read in tandem with it. The great value to be derived from such a reading of these annotations is that Joyce's literary method relies heavily on the suggestive potential of an accumulation of minor details, the precise meaning of which Joyce refuses to point, evaluate, or interpret in any direct way. Therefore the reader's attention to these details has to be informed and focused to catch unstated nuances of suggestion, and he is thus provided with a "factual" point of departure for a deeper comprehension of the world and citizens of "Ulysses".