Ulysses (Squashed Edition)

By James Joyce

The Squashed edition of Ulysses by James Joyce. Abridged from the original text to read in an hour or so.

James Joyce's attempt at writing Ireland's 'National Epic' has repeatedly been chosen, by literary experts, as simply the best book of all time. Which is strange, as ordinary people tend to denounce it as pretentious and unreadable twaddle. Why the difference? With its odd, fragmented, form, 'Ulysses' makes very little sense unless the reader is already familiar with its many references to earlier books, including the general outline of the ancient tale on which it is vaguely based. Anyone who has read a few of the Squashed Editions shouldn't have too much trouble.

Squashed editions are precise abridgements - the original ideas, in their own words, the full beam of the book, the quotable quotes and all the famous lines, but neatly honed down to the length of a readable short story.

"Like reading the bible without all the begats" - Prof. Jim Curtis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9780244545611

James Joyce

James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish novelist and short-story writer who was at the forefront of the avant-garde in literature. His novel Ulysses is regarded as one of the great masterpieces of modern literature. Joyce’s innovative use of language and brazen perspectives of the human condition caused outrage, resulting in censorship of many of his books.

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Ulysses (Squashed Edition)

Ulysses

SQUASHED EDITION

James Joyce

A Squashed Edition, elegantly abridged to read in a hour or so.

This abridgement, Copyright © 2017, Glyn Hughes. All rights reserved. Published by: Hughes Design Ltd, Squashed Editions, Denver House, Winster, Derbyshire, England DE4 2DH

www.thehundredbooks.com

This eBook, ISBN: 978-0-244-54561-1

(Also available in print, ISBN:978-0-244-44896-7)

INTRODUCTION

This is the Squashed Edition of Ulysses, abridged from the original text to read in an hour or so. Squashed editions are precise abridgements - the original ideas, in their own words, the full beam of the book, the quotable quotes and all the famous lines, but neatly honed down to the length of a readable short story.

James Joyce's attempt at writing Ireland's 'National Epic' has repeatedly been chosen, by literary experts, as simply the best book of all time. Which is strange, as ordinary people tend to denounce it as pretentious and unreadable twaddle. Why the difference? Apart from its odd, fragmented, form, 'Ulysses' makes very little sense unless the reader is already familiar with its many references to earlier books, including the general outline of the ancient tale on which it is vaguely based. Anyone who has read a few of the Squashed Editions shouldn't have too much trouble.

Glyn Hughes, Winster, England, 2018

Ulysses

(Squashed Edition)

James Joyce Zurich, London, Paris, 1920

Abridged by Glyn Hughes

1: Telemachus

STATELY, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: Introibo ad altare Dei(1). Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!

Stephen Dedalus stepped up, and sat down on the edge of the gunrest.

- Tell me, Mulligan, Stephen said quietly. How long is Haines going to stay in this tower?

- God, these bloody English! Bursting with money and indigestion. Lend us your noserag to wipe my razor.

Stephen suffered him to pull out a dirty crumpled handkerchief.

- The bard's noserag! A new art colour for our Irish poets: snotgreen. You can almost taste it, can't you?

He mounted to the parapet again and gazed out over Dublin bay, his fair oakpale hair stirring slightly.

- God! The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton.(2) Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! You must read them in the original.

He turned abruptly his grey eyes to Stephen's face.

- To think of your mother begging you with her last breath to kneel down and pray for her. And you refused. How are the secondhand breeks?

- Thanks, Stephen said. I can't wear them if they are grey.

- He can't wear them, Buck Mulligan told his face in the mirror. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers. Look at yourself!

Stephen peered at the mirror held out to him.

- It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking-glass of a servant.

- A voice within the tower called loudly: Dedalus, come down. Breakfast is ready.