Finnegans Wake

Having completed Ulysses, James Joyce believed he had finished the work of his life. But on 10 March 1923, he began a new text, initially titled Work in Progress, an even more ambitious undertaking, of which he completed the first two parts by 1926. These were published in serial form by Eugene and Maria Jolas in their magazine Transition. It was at their home that, seventeen years after beginning the work, Joyce announced the final title of the book, which ultimately comprised 17 chapters: Finnegans Wake was published in volume form on 4 May 1939.

Renowned for its difficulty, held to be unreadable and untranslatable, Finnegans Wake is nonetheless regarded as a monument of twentieth-century literature. The book is described as “translated from English,” but in fact blends several languages, to such an extent that some scholars argue it has no single source language. A first, incomplete and imperfect translation appeared in 1962; it was not until Philippe Lavergne’s 1982 translation that a complete French version was achieved.

A fine copy, handsomely bound by Lobstein-Laurenchet.