/lit/ - Literature

Hello frens, I want to read Ulysses but I'm ESL, I have read some novels and essays in English, which I could tackle well enough with a dictionary at hand, but I don't want to buy the book only to get instantly filtered by it.
I think I read here that Gifford anotated edition is great to get a sound understanding of the work, but would it be understandable by an ESL with a C1-C2 level?
For reference, hardest book in English I have read was Walden, and other than some words I had to look up I read it fairly easily and greatly enjoyed it.

Why does everyone talk shit about Bloom behind his back?

350 pages in and I am thinking of giving up. I can only do the audiobook at this point, and it's the most unpleasant read of my life. I just put it on when I'm bored, so not even every day, although I listened for about 90 minutes today at work.

>inb4
Yes, I enjoyed Iliad, Odyssey, Paradise Lost, Faust, Hamlet, Moby Dick, etc. Haven't read Canterbury Tales yet, got filtered by the Middle English.
No, I did not finish Dubliners or Portrait either, both trash.

My question to you is what am I missing and why I should finish and not listen to the Bible or Gibbon at work instead? The former being much more profound and the latter being highly enjoyable.
I love Burgess and he loved Joyce, so that is the only reason I am keeping with it.

The notion of High literature is a fallacy. I have read much of the western cannon, and found it all utterly meaningless. I assume this can be attributed to my intelligence, as my iq was recorded to be 152 points by a world renowned psychologist. This does not change the fact however, that the only texts with merit are philosophical dialogues and examinations. They do not beat around the bush or obfuscate the objective truths in relation to our own human condition, and actually provide the truest sense of transcendental knowledge any form of writing can bring. All other books are utterly meaningless, and only have value foist upon them by fools who can’t see through their guise. I am a teenager who is incredibly gifted, and As such, have been accused of being hyperbolic in my claims, but this is the truth that I have found, and I have failed to hear any rebuttal with merit. Provide me with your greatest counter points...this should be amusing.

Anyone want to do a quarantine group reading of Ulysses? I’ll make a discord if so.