The Complete Works of JAMES JOYCE
Page 108
Trieste-Zurich-Paris 1914-1921
FINNEGANS WAKE
Published in 1939, this work of comic fiction is significant for its experimental style and is now reputed to be one of the most challenging works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, two years before Joyce’s death, Finnegans Wake was the novelist’s final complete work. The entire novel is written in a largely idiosyncratic language, formed of a mixture of Standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and portmanteau words, which many critics believe attempts to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams. Owing to the work’s expansive linguistic experiments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations and abandonment of typical novel conventions of plot and character construction, Finnegans Wake remains an enigma to many people.
Please note: to aid your understanding of this very challenging text, a synopsis for each part has been included, which you may choose to read or to ignore if you wish to experience the text unaided.
The first edition
CONTENTS
PART I
Synopsis of the first part
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
PART II
Synopsis of the second part
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
PART III
Synopsis of the third part
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
PART IV
Synopsis of the fourth part
CHAPTER ONE
Joyce in his final year
PART I
Synopsis of the first part
Finnegans Wake is a cyclical work from the very start of the novel: the last sentence — a fragment — recirculates to the beginning sentence: “a way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” Joyce himself revealed that the novel “ends in the middle of a sentence and begins in the middle of the same sentence.” The introductory chapter establishes the novel’s setting as “Howth Castle and Environs”, and introduces Dublin hod carrier “Finnegan”, who falls to his death from a ladder while constructing a wall. Finnegan’s wife Annie puts out his corpse as a meal spread for the mourners at his wake, but he vanishes before they can eat him. A series of episodic vignettes follows, loosely related to the dead Finnegan, most commonly referred to as “The Willingdone Museyroom”, “Mutt and Jute”, and “The Prankquean”. At the chapter’s close a fight breaks out, whiskey splashes on Finnegan’s corpse, and “the dead Finnegan rises from his coffin bawling for whiskey and his mourners put him back to rest”, persuading him that he is better off where he is. The chapter ends with the image of the Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker character sailing into Dublin Bay to take a central role in the story.
The second chapter opens with an account of “Harold or Humphrey” Chimpden receiving the nickname “Earwicker” from the Sailor King, who encounters him attempting to catch earwigs with an inverted flowerpot on a stick while manning a tollgate through which the King is passing. This name helps Chimpden, now known by his initials Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, to rise to prominence in Dublin society as “Here Comes Everybody”. He is then brought low by a rumor that begins to spread across Dublin, apparently concerning a sexual trespass involving two girls in the Phoenix Park, although details of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker’s transgression change with each retelling of events.
Chapters two to four follow the progress of this rumor, starting with Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker’s encounter with “a cad with a pipe” in Phoenix Park. The cad greets Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker in Gaelic and asks the time, but Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker misunderstands the question as an accusation, and incriminates himself by denying rumours the cad has not yet heard. These rumours quickly spread across Dublin, gathering momentum until they are turned into a song penned by the character Hosty called “The Ballad of Persse O’Reilly”. As a result, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker goes into hiding, where he is besieged at the closed gate of his pub by a visiting American looking for drink after hours. However Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker remains silent – not responding to the accusations or verbal abuse – dreams, is buried in a coffin at the bottom of Lough Neagh, and is finally brought to trial, under the name Festy King. He is eventually freed, and goes once more into hiding. An important piece of evidence during the trial – a letter about Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker written by his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle – is called for so that it can be examined in closer detail.