James Joyce

Revised Edition

By: Richard Ellman

Narrated by: John Keating

Richard Ellmann has revised and expanded his definitive work on Joyce's life to include newly discovered primary material, including details of a failed love affair, a limerick about Samuel Beckett, a dream notebook, previously unknown letters, and much more.

©1982 Richard Ellman (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Translations please!

One of the all-time great literary biographies. It's well narrated but I wish they'd included English translations of the passages in other languages.

Hearing with Audible the 37 hours of Joyce's Bio

Would you consider the audio edition of James Joyce to be better than the print version?

Yes if the reader like to walk with hearing phones.

What did you like best about this story?

The narration of the meeting between Proust and Joyce.

Have you listened to any of John Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes. It make me laugh.

Any additional comments?

Excellent work.

A biographer's biography

I can confess that I listened to this late into the night and fell asleep on more than one night. So, I can't say I read the whole thing. Nevertheless, a biography is in large part a collection of anecdotes so just about anywhere I picked up, the story was always interesting. It was quite similar to reading Joyce in that my book had no beginning and no end. It took place at night and, it sometimes had a dreamlike quality - maybe I was dreaming. And, just like Joyce, the parts I "got" were worth the read even if I didn't "get" everything. Unlike Joyce, I don't think I will reread his biography for fear I will fall asleep in the same places.

Stunning,

A must read for even the casual reader of James Joyce. One of the best bios out there,

Rejoice, don't wallow

My followers might have fine time as much as I, for tis not particularly cerebral but rather personal and sympathetic look at life interests of Joyce giving the impression that he was quite a stoic.
The narrator had a sort of rhymthic stop-and-go reading style initially I wasn't much sure would be well-regarded over so many hours yet surprisingly found it easy on the ear overall.

Worth It

This exhaustive study of Joyce's life was wonderful to listen to, insightful & well worth it. The narrator does a good job of keeping the reading interested & the narrative is easy to follow.

The best gift a Joyce fan can give themself

A 5 star biography for sure. Beautifully written, with amazing attention to detail. Like another reviewer, I do wish the foreign phrases were read and then an English translation given. But still a great tribute to a great writer.

Not Unabridged, Strictly Speaking

Any additional comments?

The recording skips the textual notes/comments that are at the bottoms of pages throughout the book. (These are in addition to the numbered footnotes the end of the text.) Deplorable. You will have to buy the book and read this important omitted material yourself. It was misleading to label the recording as "unabridged."

Wonderful book, though.

About Joyce

This is a combination of historical events and Joyce’s day to day-year to year facts. I enjoyed the back stories of his interactions with poets , artists and book store owners.

So brilliant I didn’t understand 1/2 of it

It took me almost a year to get through this and I still need to listen again because there’s so much I didn’t get. I think part of it is all the people and the French / German / other words and phrases. The thing is, I’ve read extensively on both Joyce and this time period - Sylvia beach, the lesbian movement that supported Joyce and other artists. Etc. I still got massively lost with all the people I didn’t know which made it hard to follow. I feel like I need to research in order to read this. That said, it doesn’t take away from the content and performance which are 5 stars. I just need to figure out who all these people are so I can follow.