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Loading... Finnegans Wake (original 1939; edition 2002)by James Joyce (Author)
Work InformationFinnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)
  
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 mns1 | Dec 26, 2024 |   IslandJAS | Sep 5, 2024 | Oh, I have one; after you get some feel of the wheel, it does feel like it was written by the man who wrote Ulysses, so if you have some understanding of how that book works, that will help you a bit with this. It's not a completely alien beast. (  ) arthurfrayn | May 26, 2024 | )1  DaveTubaKing | Nov 23, 2023 |  ) mykl-s | Aug 13, 2023 |
Finnegans Wake presenta l’ostacolo ulteriore e pressoché insormontabile della lingua in cui fu scritto, lingua che pur partendo dall’inglese, sia pure con accento irlandese, è poi un impasto di neologismi inventati da Joyce attingendo sia alla sua insaziabilità di autodidatta, sia al suo talento di poliglotta. n un crogiolo di etnie dal quale aveva appreso una moltitudine di idiomi. . Anche nella sua operazione matta e disperatissima Joyce vuole che il lettore capisca; ma a costo di risalire all’origine di tutte le sue invenzioni, parola per parola. Il primo a corredare di chiose puntuali anche se non esaurienti quello che veniva scrivendo, fu proprio lui. . . . one doubts that “Finnegans Wake” will be grasped—at least in our time—except by a few conscientious philologists and a small lunatic fringe of autohypnotic Joyceans who seem able to hurl themselves into a trance of intuitive comprehension. I have enough sense to know that the man who wrote “Ulysses” is a great artist. I cannot believe, though some do, that he would spend seventeen years in the elaboration of a gigantic hoax. And, anyway, “Finnegans Wake” is so extraordinary that it’s worth talking about even if, like myself, you understand precious little of it. In between [the first and last sentences] lie 628 pages of a book that is not novel, poem, music, drama, symphony, declamation, parody, burlesque, fantasy, epic, or vaudeville sketch, but apparently something of all of them. It has no specific subject; indeed, as far as I can make out, it is not about anything at all. It seems to me that what is evoked in the reader by any particular word or phrase in “Finnegans Wake” will be in large part a matter of accident, almost of whim. One man’s association is another man’s bewilderment. Why should the parts of speech be fixed in their functions? They aren’t really, except in the grammar books. Joyce mixes them up, uses verbs as nouns, uses adjectives as verbs, sends an electric current of healthy disintegration through a great language that in Shakespeare’s day was much bolder and more alive than it is in our own. This, I submit, is all to the good, whether or not “Finnegans Wake” is a work of art, a work of artifice, or a work of psychosis. And don’t ask me which of the three I think it is. You pays your money and you takes your Joyce. Is contained inIs abridged inHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textAwardsNotable Lists
This early work by James Joyce was originally published in 1939 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'Finnegans Wake' is a an experimental novel of comic fiction. James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1882. He excelled as a student at the Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, and then at University College Dublin, where he studied English, French, and Italian. Joyce produced several prominent works, including: 'Ulysses', 'A Portrait of the Young Artist', 'Dubliners', and 'Finnegans Wake. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the early twentieth century and his legacy can be seen throughout modern literature. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
There are numerous companion guides available, for what they are worth, but these do little more than raise the question of whether this is a quest worth pursuing.
There was a discernible change throughout the Arts around the turn of 20th cenutry, in painting, in music and in written word. Calling this 'Modernism' is not helpful. Over time, the visual art of this period of change has fared well and over time it turned out the people were willing and able able to decode modern paintings sympathetically. Such was not the case with orchestral music and the result is that further orchestral music has effectvely died out, being supplanted by other forms of music.
Such was also the fate of experiments in the written word - as with music, a cul-de sac was created. It turned out that there was a level of incomprehension and dissonance which hardly anybody could be bothered to tolerate.
it is not a virtue of any art work to be incomprehensible. Finnegan's Wake remains nothing more than a botched, failed laboratory experiment which produced nothing of value.
The book still has its champions. Try and read the first 50 - even 20- pages and you will know whether it is worth devoting any more time to it. Trust your instincts.