Finnegans wake
James Joyce (1882-1941)
Category
Books
Date
1939
Materials
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent
NT 3134602
Caption
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce’s final work, was deemed indecipherable by Harold Nicolson, who was an admirer and champion of Joyce’s previous publications, particularly Ulysses. This copy of Finnegans Wake is the one Nicolson used to prepare his review of the novel for the Daily Telegraph, in which he admitted being unable to ‘penetrate the meaning of this enormous allegory.’ In his diaries, Nicolson went on to describe the book as selfish and that ‘one cannot read it; one has just got to prop it up on the mantelpiece and take it in’.
Summary
Finnegans Wake (London, 1939), by James Joyce. Bound in red cloth, with gold lettering on the spine, as issued by the publisher, Faber & Faber. The book contains Harold Nicolson's marginal annotations and notes at the rear of the volume.
Bibliographic description
[4], 628 p. ; 25 cm. Blind stamp on final page: Complimentary copy not for sale. Pencil text marking, with final endpaper annotation and page references. Provenance: black ink stamp: Harold Nicolson. Binding: red publisher's cloth, gold lettered on spine.
Makers and roles
James Joyce (1882-1941)
