Finnegans Wake is a novel written by James Joyce. Released from 1924-1939, it is notable for its extremely surreal and abstruse story style.
Characters[]
- Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker
- Shem the Penman
- Shaun the Postman
- Anna Livia Plurabelle
- Shem
- Shaun
- Issy
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
A story with no real beginning or end (it ends in the middle of a sentence and begins in the middle of the same sentence), this "book of Doublends Jined" is as remarkable for its prose as for its circular structure.
Written in a fantastic dream-language, forged from polyglot puns and portmanteau words, the Wake features some of Joyce's most hilarious characters: the Irish barkeep Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, Shem the Penman, Shaun the Postman, and Anna Livia Plurabelle.
Joyce's final work, Finnegan's Wake is his masterpiece of the night as Ulysses is of the day. Supreme linguistic virtuosity conjures up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dream. Joyce undermines traditional storytelling and all official forms of English and confronts the different kinds of betrayal - cultural, political and sexual - that he saw at the heart of Irish history. Dazzlingly inventive, with passages of great lyrical beauty and humour, Finnegans Wake remains one of the most remarkable works of the twentieth century.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ulysses | James Joyce | 1922 | Another extremely experimental novel by the same author |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | 1864 | Another novel set in a dream |
| Gravity's Rainbow | Thomas Pynchon | 1973 | Another long and extremely experimental novel |
| Gilligan's Wake | Tom Carson | 2002 | A novel somewhat inspired by this novel |
Sources[]
- Wikipedia
- Goodreads
| Works of James Joyce | ||
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Prose/plays published within his lifetime | ||