Books

First US edition, first printing, handsomely bound. Finnegans Wake was issued in Britain and America simultaneously, in both trade and signed limited editions, on 4 May 1939. "The most conspicuous innovation of Finnegans Wake is its use of 'dream-language'. After Ulysses Joyce believed that he had 'come to the end of English', and his last novel is a pervasive layering of multilingual puns in successive drafts which produces a fabric rich in semantic possibilities" (ODNB). Octavo (238 x 146 mm). Mid-20th-century black morocco for Asprey by Zaehnsdorf, spine lettered in gilt, floral roll on raised bands gilt, compartments, covers, and board edges ruled in gilt, turn-ins with decorative gilt rolls and rules, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Binding firm, tiny paper flaw to p. 21 margin, very faint tidemark to a few upper margins. A near-fine copy. Connolly, The Modern Movement 87; Slocum & Cahoon A48.

Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is significant for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works in the Western canon. The book, Joyce's final and most avant-garde work, is structured as a sort of feverish dream containing multilingual puns, numerous literary and historical allusions, and a rich tapestry of themes.