Ulysses for dummies

There’s a lot of begrudgery around. Roddy Doyle, for example, has some fatuous views about Ulysses — “over-long, over-rated and un-moving”. (Which neatly summarises my view of Mr Doyle’s extensive oeuvre, by the way.) There’s also a lot of comment on the lines of “it’s such a long and difficult book, isn’t it?” To ease the plight of the intellectually challenged, the BBC has a Cheat’s Guide to the novel and solicits vox-pop views. (Sample: “Man goes for a walk around Dublin. Nothing happens — David Mosley, Newport Pagnell.) But it’s saved by appending Stephen Fry’s riposte:

“Lord help us all. ‘Pretentious drivel’, ‘better off with a good walk rather than reading dusty books’. What possible hope is there for a country which with such self-righteous philistinism scorns its own treasures? Ulysses is the greatest novel of the twentieth century. It is is wise, warm, witty, affirmative and beautiful. it is less pretentious than a baked bean. Read it. read it out loud to yourself. It won’t bite. It wasn’t written either to shock or to impress. Only pretentious barbarians believe artists set out shock: and how these philistines delight in revealing how unshocked they are. Those who attack it are afraid of it and rather than look foolish they prefer to heckle what they don’t understand. Ignore all this childish, fear-filled criticism, Ulysses will be read when everything you see and touch around you has crumbled into dust. Stephen Fry, London, UK”