[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). (more…)
I Just Read About That... 