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Originally Posted by Serrart
Why not alone? I did it and it was a great experience.
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Let me retract that injunction, then, because I think that reading "Ulysses" without consulting criticism, analysis or other explanation is certainly preferable to not reading it at all, & even very satisfying to some people, as you say it was to you. But to the thousands of others who have found Joyce's language, themes & references to be too great a strain on their attention or endurance, I'd say that Stuart Gilbert's book (written with Joyce's assistance) is just about the best aid a reader could find.
I taught undergrads at U.C. Davis as a graduate assistant, & we all read "Ulysses" along with Gilbert's book, & I think without Gilbert, the students would have been quite lost -- little sheep wandering among Joyce's towering crags. Gilbert helped us all understand the structure & symbolism of "Ulysses," as well as its thousands of literary, political, scientific, aesthetic, metaphysical & even anatomical references. For example, I remember how useful the discussion was of the "Oxen of the Sun" episode in the hospital, with its esoteric parody of the various phases of literary style -- from Anglo-Saxon to mediaeval Latin to Middle English to 17th century to 18th century . . . echoes of Carlyle, De Quincey, Malory, Browne, Pepys, Swift, Addison, Walpole, etc. etc. Even if we had been capable of recognizing these stylistic allusions, I think we'd have still been totally unaware of what it all had to do with the development of an embryo. And we'd have been fairly lost in the great "Nighttown" sequence, with its black magic & animism & specters & more arcane references, this time to Balaam's ass or Flaubert's "Saint Antoine" or God-knows-what-all.
"Ulysses" is so chock-a-block full of life & art & knowledge that to anyone who tells me he or she wants to read it, I just habitually recommend starting with the Gilbert book -- or even reading it in tandem with Joyce. It's actually set up so you can do that. It's still in print in a good Vintage paperback, & it will unlock so many treasures in "Ulysses" for you that you're bound to find your "voyage to Ithaca" so much richer for it.