Books

First edition, signed limited issue, unusually retaining the glassine dust jacket, cloth slipcase, and the scarce publisher's cardboard mailing box. It is number 193 of 425 copies signed by the author, specially bound, and printed on handmade paper. This copy is accompanied by the 16-page pamphlet of errata prepared by Joyce and published in 1945. The bibliographers Slocum & Cahoon record the slipcase but not the glassine or packing box. The limitation was divided between the British and American markets and sold simultaneously with the trade issues on 4 May 1939. "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). Large octavo. Original red buckram, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut. With the original glassine jacket, yellow cloth slipcase, and cardboard packing box with paper title labels. Corrections of Misprints in octavo, wire-stitched as issued. Foxing to edges, contents clean; glassine with a couple of tears at lower edges; a few spots to slipcase: an exceptional copy. Burgess, 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939, p. 25; Connolly, Modern Movement 87; Slocum & Cahoon A49 & 53.

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.