Leopold Bloom's fictional home on Eccles St. is now a consultant's office. Just last year I had an appointment with a dermatologist there and happened to be reading Ulysses at the same time. It was just a cool coincidence. There is a plaque in front of the building now.
I tried my best, but I might as well have been looking into a field trying to understand Ulysses. I tried to adopt a mind set hankering back to that time pireiod. It made no difference, I'm still looking in the field. What I do understand is Dublins stuffy conservatism. Middle class mixing of Anglo Irish, snobbery Catholicism,, protestantism all mixing. Afternoon tea in Bewley's of Grafton St . Young people on the up man and women All that mixing of the Dublin wannabes looking for English scraps like always. My Dublin from the sixties was working class, two up two down. Two working class parents with seven children. Still first up best dressed. My Dublin was a million miles away from Ulysses. Our afternoon tea and cream slice was served around the corner from Bewley's it was called the Bano. They poured our beautiful sweet tea from kettles used in the great hunger/Genocide of 1845/6/7/8. And our famous hot cross curran buns .The vibrent living/surviving in our part of the city, despite our lot it was a far cry from the seriousness and stuffy penny snobs who liked to be seen strolling along grafton St of a Sunday afternoon with Joyce and stuffy friends in tow while miserable. These two place's might as well have been on two different planet's.
Thats quite a presumptive opening statement I must say. By the way anyone wishing to have the slightest notion about whats going on in said book would do well To read 'The Bloomsday Book' Blamires, H. (Methuen, 1966). Not only does it illuminate the more impenetrable corners of the settings, but gives an idea of the staggering complexity and wild ambition of this as a work of art.
I'm thinking about reading Ulysses someday and I'm curious, when I do should I just try to enjoy the work and not stress about things I might not understand?
I suggest getting hold of a copy of nabokov's lectures on literature first. He does a good job of presenting ulysses. Though it's 11 years now since you posted this comment. You probably tackled it already?
Sartoris Use the annotated notes text “Ulysses annotated” 2nd edition by Don Gifford and Robert Seidman to help you. You need the context to understand Ulysses. Frank Delaney’s “Re: Joyce” website with his podcasts about Ulysses is an excellent starting point.