[LISTENED TO: September 27, 2010] Ulysses [abridged]
Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to listen to the abridged version of Ulysses as well (what’s 4 more hours of my life?). (This edition is by Naxos, which Amazon is selling as a download). I decided that the main reason was that since I have the text so fresh in my mind, it would be interesting to see what they abridged. I mentioned in a recent post that the abridged version is 4 discs (just under 5 hours). That is a serious abridgment, from 40 to 5 hours (actually the Naxos unabridged version is only 22 discs…how come theirs is so much shorter? It seems that Jim Norton reads much faster). And I am curious to see what they consider the “essential” text of the book. Plus, realistically, I would never really want to do it at a later date.
So this version is read by two different people: Jim Norton (who read Dubliners, Portrait, and an abridged Finnegans Wake too) and Marcella Riordan. There are a number of places where the two interact (she is Molly in the early scene in bed and she is some of the whores in the nightwon scene…it adds some real dramatic resonance to the story).
In fact, this version of the story is considerably more dramatic. Jim Norton is rather over the top at times (for better or worse) and it really heightens the intensity of the novel. He also has a lot of fun with accents and singing (his songs are quite boisterous). [A reviewer on Amazon cited this as a major fault, but I found it fun].
As with the other Joyce audio CDs by this company, the sections of the book open with a snippet of music that is appropriate to the story (this was also faulted by the reviewer but it doesn’t bother me). The biggest problem with this audio book is that the recording level is really really really quiet. At some point it was almost impossible to hear. In particular, Bloom’s thoughts are almost whispered. This makes sense in the context of the story, especially as a way to separate spoken words from internal monologue, but man, it was so quiet I had to turn the radio up all the way and I still couldn’t hear everything.
But what about the abridgment itself?
What we get is the opening of Chapter 1 (Stephen & Buck on the tower, although we don’t go inside). Then we meet Bloom and we get a big chunk of the opening of Episode 4 (breakfast and the butcher). We see some of Episode 5: Bloom wanders around (there is nothing of the funeral, not even the car ride there). We see him get the letter at the post office. He meets McCoy (who asks him to say he was at the funeral). Then he gives Bantam Lyons the “tip” on Throwaway. Bloom also reads the throwaway about Elijah and feeds the gulls.
We jump to Episode 8 where he meets Mrs Breen (u.p.: up) and then has lunch.
Then we jump to the Episode 12 with the citizen. There’s quite a lot of this section (although not all of it). It begins with the beginning and then jumps to Bloom’s entrance and the big argument that ensues. [Norton’s Citizen is wonderfully scary sounding]. We move on to the Episode 13. We see the opening beach scene and a lot about Gerty. Her introduction is left in (with the toddlers), and it goes all the way to the climax. But the post-scene is not included.
And then we jump into Episode 15, Nighttown. Some of the intro is left in, and then the middle part where Bello abuses Bloom (but not all of it, and none of the really crazy vulgar stuff…although the audio is not afraid of the vulgar). Then finally, we see the end, where Stephen gets punched [Norton’s voice for the King is crazily wonderful].
Then we move to Bloom’s house. There are a few sections of Episode 17’s catechism, mostly the ones that are relevant to the Stephen/Bloom storyline. But it does leave in all of their urination. And it includes the final words where Bloom is falling asleep [Norton yawns through the Sinbad the Sailor, Tinbad the Tailor bit which is a nice touch.]
Finally, we hear Molly’s Episode 18. Marcella does a great job as well. She really captures the feelings and passions of Molly. And, as with the other one, she sings and emphasizes and emotes very well. As for the ending she is a little more animated with those final yeses, but it’s actually pretty consistent with the other recording. I guess those finally yeses are not as ecstatic as I’ve read them.
For the record, the episodes skipped in their entirety are: Episodes 2, 3, 6, 7 (I would have liked to hear their multi-person technique for this Episode), 9, 10, 11, 14 and 16).
According to the Recorded Books Version, theirs was the definitive officially sanctioned reading. Meaning, I don’t know what exactly about this version, is it wrong somehow? It apparently does not use the Gabler text as its source either. Now, I suppose those distinctions make a big deal to scholars and die-hards, but I think that their unabridged version would be kind of enjoyable. The Naxos unabridged is much shorter (22 discs). I think this is because Jim Norton reads it much faster (the Nighttown scene in particular was quite intense in its speed, compared toe the Donal Donnelly version).
The excerpt was fun (obviously it is barely the story at all). But it’s interesting to see what kind of story they carved out of the full thing: focus on Bloom, meet Stephen, hear a bit about people’s impressions of Bloom and see his interactions in Nighttown (focusing on his guilt about Gerty). And then home. Of course, since I’ve been through the whole story twice in recent days, it’s hard to think of the excerpts by themselves without remembering the full story. But it was certainly an enjoyable and humorous listen.
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