Written in answer to a letter that asked Kenner to elaborate on his assertion that "Joyce began Ulysses in naturalism and ended it in parody," this book explores the way Joyce is able to play two roles in the novel--that of Bloom and the narrator--by using a technique that Kenner calls the "Uncle Charles Principle." Kenner demonstrates the way this principle subverts the traditional novelistic technique of being told only the things an observer would experience and allows Joyce to achieve a remarkable level of complexity and narrative depth. This is a reprint of the original edition published in 1978 by the U. of California Press. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)