Before entering the cavern of this work, one has to decide the "why" as above, then the "how". For me, after much diddling, false starts and self deceptions, this excellent CD set became the obvious answer. I had heard the comments of people far more intelligent than I on how difficult the work was to plow through. Therefore, I would have even more difficulty than they if I chose to continue reading it (a false start at reading the 735 page tome got almost nowhere). Also, I would be displaying a gracious nature in accepting the much-touted idea that "Joyce's prose must be HEARD to be truly appreciated".

The production here is an excellent way to expose oneself in a leisurely manner to the book's wily trap without becoming totally enmeshed. The trap is simply that one thinks the work is "going to say something", but the fact remains that it really says nothing, albeit in a brilliant way.

One can be tired but still listen to part of a CD, repeat passages at will, turn it off, reflect, then continue. It is MUCH harder to read this work than to listen to it. The CD set also contains very valuable and detailed notes about each section as well as overall enlightening critical information, and relevant musical selections are also present throughout.

If one is truly serious about attacking this work, I would recommend the sort of "Joyce for Dummies" approach that I followed: purchase the DVD of the film version of Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (although the film doesn't boast a very good screenplay and is unrestored, the performances are excellent), as well as the CD audio book of the same title (abridged, but all the important parts are there). Absorbing these will give you a central clue about Ulysses, mostly in the Stephen Dedalus character that appears in both (hint: Stephen is a boring, cold, emotionless prig). Then purchase the DVD of the 1967 film version of Ulysses (excellent photography in a pristine black and white print). Although set in 1967, it will give you a reasonably OK overview of the "story" of Ulysses which is set in 1904.

Having taken in these, you are almost ready to proceed to the CD set of Ulysses, and you can already rightly claim to have listened to the prose of Joyce, definitely a feather in your cap at certain parties (where you may also want to rhyme off a few memorized lines in the appropriate accent).

Avoid the millions of words contained in endless musings about the book, and read only one essay, that of Carl Jung entitled Ulysses in the book The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature. If read carefully and more than once before listening to the Ulysses CD set, you'll find that it does indeed contain the golden key to truly understanding the nature of this massively influential book.