The short answer to this question is: none. No ancillary reading is necessary to enjoy Ulysses, and I tend to tell first-time readers to actually avoid all the guides and reference books: I think it’s best to just let Joyce’s prose carry you along, and enjoy the ride. You can try to figure out “what it all means” later.
However, I do recognize that this approach isn’t satisfying to everyone, and some people prefer to have some of the more difficult aspects of the text cleared up for them as they go. (This seems an appropriate thing to acknowledge in the light of Daryl’s post earlier today). So here are some of the things that you might like to take a look at, as we read.
1. In addition to a good dictionary, the one indispensible resource is Don Gifford’s Ulysses Annotated. This hefty tome will elucidate the vast majority of Joyce’s references, from literary allusions to local Dublin “street furniture.” Some people like to read with this open alongside, checking out Gifford’s commentary as they go. I did this, in fact, my second time through: it’s enlightening, but as you might imagine it really slows down the reading, and takes a lot away from the rhythm of Joyce’s writing, so I’m not crazy about it as an approach. Instead, I’d suggest marking words and passages you are curious about as you read, and then after you finish a chapter go to Gifford and look them up. But everyone reads differently, and you’ll have to find a method that works for you.
2. There are any number of guides to Ulysses, which provide plot summary and explain various allusions and parallels. There are two that are particularly worth mentioning. One was written by Joyce’s friend Stuart Gilbert, with Joyce’s guidance, and so it has the authorial imprimatur: it’s sort of the “official” guide to Ulysses. It is an excellent book. It’s rather heavy on the summary and quotation of the novel, but when you consider that it was published while Ulysses was still banned in most of the English-speaking world, that makes a lot of sense. Gilbert spends a lot of time on the Homeric parallels, cementing that mode of reading for a generation of Joyceans. His introduction to the book is fascinating (and almost as dense as Ulysses itself, at times), so I’d suggest looking at that at some point (preferably after you’ve finished your first reading of the novel), even if you don’t want read his summary/analysis of each individual chapter.
More recent than Gilbert, and rather more popular among contemporary readers, is Harry Blamires’ The Bloomsday Book. This is a lot less inflated than Gilbert’s book, and provides a sort of walk-through of the text, pointing out various connections that might escape the casual reader. It’s very helpful, but I often find myself questioning his conclusions. (I believe I’ve spotted a few outright errors, in fact.) But really, I think my problem is that I just find his reading a little too cut-and-dried, whereas I find Ulysses is more ambiguous.
Then there is a more recent guide, which I’ve heard was actually a best-seller in Ireland (though I have not confirmed this to be true): Declan Kiberd’s Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living. As the title suggests, this is less a guide to the plot of the book or exegesis of its literary depths than a discussion of what the book has to tell us about being human. In that regard, it’s maybe a little touchy-feely for some, but it’s really quite good, and it’s interesting to see how Ulysses is regarded “today.” (Well, last year, anyway.)
3. Moving up the scale from “notes” to “guides” to “studies,” there are any number of great introductions to Ulysses that take a more whole-cloth approach, rather than walking the reader from chapter to chapter. One I particularly like is by Hugh Kenner, probably the greatest modernist scholar of his generation, and just a really good stylist in his own right. His book on Ulysses is brief, but full of interesting observations. There are others, but this is my favorite.
4. Then there’s the literature that Joyce was drawing on for background. I don’t think reading the Odyssey is very important for understanding Ulysses: a grasp of its basic plot (a hero trying to get home, a son trying to reunite with his father) and major characters and mythological monsters (Cyclops, Sirens, etc.) is sufficient, and can be gained from reading a children’s “stories from the Odyssey” (which is, I believe, essentially what Joyce was drawing on). But if you have the time, of course, there’s no harm in reading the Great Poem of the Western Tradition (I like the Fagles translation).
The other big canonical text referred to throughout Ulysses is Hamlet. I’d imagine everyone reading this has read Hamlet at some point, but if you have a free couple hours, it’s worth revisiting it: there’s a whole chapter (the ninth) that centers on it, so it’s good to have it fresh in your mind. But not necessary, by any means. (As a matter of fact, the discussion of Hamlet in the book strays pretty far from the play itself, looking more towards Shakespeare’s life for material. But you’ll see.)
The most important precursor to Ulysses is Joyce’s previous novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This you probably should read before you start. Ulysses picks up the story of Stephen Dedalus where Portrait left off, and a number of other characters carry over as well. Again, you’ll totally be able to get into Ulysses without it, but it provides useful context. There are also a number of characters from Dubliners, Joyce’s collection of short stories, that crop up, but it’s not necessary to have read that one first either.
5. And of course, like all his books, Joyce drew much of Ulysses from his own life, so Richard Ellmann’s magisterial biography provides a lot of useful background.
Of course, there’s also a lot of stuff online (for example, the annotations at Ulysses “Seen”): my next post will explore Ulysses on the web. And I’d like to invite comments on secondary sources from you, as well: I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t mention, and probably people have their own ideas on how to best approach the book: please share.
Ultimately I’d like to reiterate, even though I’ve listed a semester’s-worth of reading here, absolutely none of it is necessary, and I strongly encourage first-time readers to just jump into the book without all this excess baggage holding you down. The book more than stands on its own.
Infinite Zombies 
Completely agree that reading the Odyssey itself is of, at best, negligible value. The relevant parallels are well covered (belabored?) by Gilbert’s nice little book.
Gifford is, for many, de rigeur; much of what it does, though, is offer translations and explain allusions. The effect is that reading with Gifford ready-to-hand sometimes makes it hard to see the forest for the trees.
Also completely agree that if you read one book in prep, that book should be Portrait. Portrait, of course, ends with Stephen heading off to forge in the smithy of his soul, etc. etc. Wayne Booth famously wrote about the problem of aesthetic distance and Portrait; i.e., what should we think of him as the novel ends. I always think that one effect of beginning Ulysses with Stephen where he is, is a comic deflation of Stephen’s rather high-minded ambitions.
As far as internet resources, you probably already know about John Barger’s “Robot Wisdom” pages. The site may look a bit crude, but the Joyce material at Robot Wisdom always leaves me thoroughly impressed:
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/index.html
Wow, thanks Judd! I was just about to post a comment in the previous Ulysses post regarding guides, but this pretty much covers that completely and then some. I think I’ll go ahead and read Portrait as planned, and then just enjoy my first reading of Ulysses for Joyce’s prose alone, revisiting it for meaning/analysis on later occasions.
Only 10 days to go… looking forward to it!
The first time around I absolutely agree that it’s best to read it without a guide, but a basic plot summary would help. The Wikipedia page, for instance, should suffice. (Although “Portrait” and “Dubliners” are highly recommended, even if you don’t finish “Ulysses”, if only because it’s easy to finish them and they’re great. At least read “The Dead”, it ends in one of the best sentences in the English Language!)
The second time around, read as many sources as you want. Judd’s hit the major ones here: the Gilbert study, the Ellmann biography, and “Ulysses Annotated” are key.
Anthony Burgess’s “Rejoyce” adds nothing new to Joyce studies, but it’s a bit more of an easy read than most, and once you read “Scylla and Charybdis” (the library scene) “Nothing Like the Sun” is a REALLY fun read.
That’s a great list, Judd. All the most dog-eared copies from my own Joyce shelf.
I’ve been suggesting the Kiberd book pretty heavily lately because I particularly like the approach of trying to understand the novel outside of the academic environment but, I think you’re right in saying it’s sometimes better to just “enjoy the ride.” For first-timers taking this approach I’d want to add one suggestion;
Try to find the time, and proper place, to read difficult passages aloud.
The flow of the language with Joyce, particularly in many sections of this novel, is meant to be heard. First time readers often miss the nuances of narrative shift from chapter to chapter when they read it cold. Reading it aloud forces you to make some internal decisions about just who is speaking when and what that might say about their point of view. That, for me, goes a long way towards the theme of parallax in the novel faster than any classroom discussion ever could.
Oh, and Robot Wisdom is a great site, but not for the timid. Deep and dark Joycean waters in that part of the world…
Greetings. Hopping onto the Ulysses ride hoping it will give me the stamina to finish this time. I’ve made two prior attempts – once unaided and once with Gifford by my side- and found the exact drawbacks Judd identified above. This time I’m trying a new approach that seems to be working better for me.
I have purchased the audiobook and I am listening to sections either before or after a Gifford-assisted reading. I get to experience the Flow of the words uninterrupted. I get the much-needed assistance of Giff. And experiencing the same section twice in a row hasn’t hurt either.
I’ve not yet gone the audio book route (I actually look forward to reading it aloud every now and again), but I do get a lot of questions from people about some of the better audio version, Ernie. Mind if I ask which one you’re using and what you think of it?
I have the unabridged version from Naxos, read by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan.
Chose it based on a few solid reviews and the fact that Norton seems to have recorded all of Joyce’s work – shows an interest that probably indicates an informed read.
The sound is good, Norton is lively, good with an accent (important to have an Irishman doing the reading), and not afraid to sing.
Haven’t met Molly yet, so no Riordan either.
Another interesting facet of this version is that each section starts with what sounds to my uneducated ear to be Irish music from the era. Not sure if the specific songs have more signifance or if they are intended merely to provide mood.
BTW- an inital apology to all for any typos or mispellings that will undoubtedly appear in this and future posts. Infinite Zombies is inaccessable from my work computer along with any other site considered to be social media so I must tap away with my thumbs into this incredibly small dialog box, which considerably weakens my will to edit my posts.
The music aspect is key to understanding ULYSSES, Ernie. I’ll have to check it out and see what they’ve got on there. I’m sure Judd will be handling music quite a bit in the reading group as it’s such an integral part of the novel.
The first spoken words in the novel, the “introibo” that Mulligan speaks, would have actually been sung in the Latin masses of the time. So the first utterance here is sung.
I wrote my post on Ulysses http://silverseason.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/getting-into-james-joyces-ulysses/ before seeing this one. I am doing the guide approach, alternating Blamires and Joyce. I do love the language and would probably enjoy it as an audio book. My problem is not intellectual but emotional. I just can’t like these people much or care what happens to them. I am half way through so maybe this will change.