Finnegans Wake.

Joyce, James

Published by The Viking Press, New York, 1939

About this Item

First American edition of Joyceâ s masterpiece. Octavo, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery, gilt titles and ruling to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, gilt signature to the front panel, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. In fine condition. An exceptional presentation. Joyce began working on Finnegans Wake shortly after the 1922 publication of Ulysses. By 1924 installments of Joyce's new avant-garde work began to appear, in serialized form, in Parisian literary journals transatlantic review and transition, under the title "fragments from Work in Progress". The actual title of the work remained a secret until the book was published in its entirety, on 4 May 1939. The work has assumed a preeminent place in English literature. Anthony Burgess praised the book as "a great comic vision, one of the few books of the world that can make us laugh aloud on nearly every page." Harold Bloom called the book "Joyce's masterpiece", and wrote that "[if] aesthetic merit were ever again to center the canon [Finnegans Wake] would be as close as our chaos could come to the heights of Shakespeare and Dante." Modern Library named it one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Seller Inventory # 139672

Bibliographic Details

Title: Finnegans Wake.

Publisher: The Viking Press, New York

Publication Date: 1939

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition