Finnegans Wake ends with the beginning of a sentence and begins with the end of the same sentence, turning the narrative into one great cycle. The opening words are “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs” and the ending is “A way a lone a last a loved a long the”. [1]
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce was published in book form, after seventeen years of composition, on 4 May 1939. Joyce started working on the book in the late 1920s after he had already achieved considerable literary acclaim with his earlier works including Ulysses.
Finnegans Wake is a famously challenging and complex novel, often considered one of the most difficult works of literature in English. It was Joyce’s final and most ambitious literary project, and he died twenty months later in January 1941. While writing the book Joyce’s health deteriorated, and he struggled with increasing blindness, which made the writing process difficult.
At its core, Finnegans Wake explores themes of history, mythology, religion, and the human condition. The title itself refers to the character Finnegan, who is said to have fallen from a ladder and died, only to wake up again, symbolizing the cyclical nature of life and death.
The novel is known for its dense, multi-layered narrative, stream-of-consciousness writing style, and its use of a vast array of languages, puns, and wordplay, and is more than 600 pages long. The plot, if it can be called that, describes a single night but is notoriously difficult to follow, as it unfolds in a dreamlike, non-linear manner.
Finnegans Wake is a challenging read, requiring a patient approach and a willingness to engage deeply with its linguistic puzzles and literary allusions.
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