Shorter Ulysses

A Shorter Ulysses was intended to serve as a companion volume to Burgess's A Shorter Finnegans Wake, which he was commissioned to create in 1966. This is the first time that Burgess's shortened version of James Joyce's Ulysses has been published. Describing this commission in his autobiography, Burgess explains that he was asked to create a beginner's abridged version of about 200 pages with a commentary to link the passages of Joyce's original text and an explanatory preface. The surviving notes towards A Shorter Ulysses suggest that Burgess envisaged that A Shorter Ulysses would follow a similar format. The document was discovered in Burgess's house in Bracciano, which was purchased in the early 1970s, and thus probably date from this period. Also included in this volume is Burgess's Introduction to Ulysses for a 1982 Book Club Associates edition of the novel. In a brilliant essay opening the book, Burgess manages to convey in just under 3000 words the very essence of the work. His concluding words are: 'We are, having overcome its difficulties, at last free to appreciate its humour and humanity. Its early denouncers saw mostly filth and ugliness. We can hear its music and rejoice in its tolerance and decency and, yes, affection for fallen man'. Last, but certainly not least, this volume includes The Blooms of Dublin, a musical play by Burgess, based on Ulysses. It was first broadcast on BBC radio and Radio Telefis Eireann in February 1982 to celebrate the hundredth birthday of James Joyce, and it was published for the first time in 1986. Burgess had begun developing the work as early as the mid 1960s and, according to him, a draft of the libretto and score had been completed as early as 1971. The draft score was subsequently converted by Burgess into a complete orchestral work in preparation for the radio broadcast. Burgess's biographer and Director of the International Burgess Foundation, Andrew Biswell, provides a foreword to this fascinating volume.