Classics · ThoughtfulA rumour about the Dublin publican HCE and his family runs through seventeen chapters written in a dream-language
Finnegans Wake
by James Joyce
A family in the Dublin area, told in a language of puns drawn from many tongues
The book has seventeen chapters in four Parts. It follows a rumour about HCE, his wife ALP's attempt to exonerate him with a letter, and their sons Shem and Shaun's rivalry, and it ends with ALP's monologue at dawn. The text is English altered with words and puns drawn from many languages. Excerpts appeared from 1924 as "Work in Progress" in literary journals, and Faber and Faber in London and Viking Press in New York published the book on 4 May 1939.
More about this book
Who
The Earwicker family: HCE, ALP, Shem the Penman, Shaun the Postman and Issy.
World
"Howth Castle and Environs," the Dublin area.
What makes it different
It ends with an unfinished sentence that is completed by the opening words, so the work forms a cycle. Critics generally agree on the cast but not on a definitive plot.
Feel
Dreamlike and very difficult.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Finnegans WakeWikipedia