Is it really necessary to read Dubliners and A Portrait of the

Yes, Stephen Dedalus is a central character in Portrait and Ulysses

>>9679761

You can get Dover thrift editions of each of those for a few dollars each.

>>9679761
His grandson says otherwise, but I would strongly recommend you to do so.

>>9679761
I read Ulysses first but it was the Oxford World Classics edition with annotations explaining a lot of things in the back of the book.

>>9679797
I have that very same version too. Did you have much trouble while reading it or did it do a good job at explaining some of the references and stuff?

>>9679761
It's absolutely necessary to read both Dubliners and Portrait before Ulysses. You really have no business reading it if you have not gone through those two. Characters from Dubliners make appearances and are referenced, and Stephen Dedalus from Portrait is one of the main characters in Ulysses.