Finnegan's Wake

IrishMark

Hi all,
I'm about to start Finnegan's Wake by Joyce, and am looking for a book to help me through it; something which gives possible derivations/definitions for the words, literary allusions etc - basically a guide. Is there anything anyone could recommend?
Best,
Mark.

Permabear

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byronbay2

Unless you're reading it for a bet/dare/university course, my advice would be Don't Do It! There are some some interesting sections (The Ant and the Grasshopper, Anna Livia Plurabelle) but it is generally dense, indecipherable gobbledygook that requires a much larger book for explanations than the text itself. This renders the reading process ultimately pointless (unless the point is to impress the one-in-a-million person who wants to discuss the novel with you) as it becomes a plodding chore rather than a delight. Learn from my mistake, stick to the earlier works of Joyce!

IrishMark

byronbay2 wrote: »

Unless you're reading it for a bet/dare/university course, my advice would be Don't Do It! There are some some interesting sections (The Ant and the Grasshopper, Anna Livia Plurabelle) but it is generally dense, indecipherable gobbledygook that requires a much larger book for explanations than the text itself. This renders the reading process ultimately pointless (unless the point is to impress the one-in-a-million person who wants to discuss the novel with you) as it becomes a plodding chore rather than a delight. Learn from my mistake, stick to the earlier works of Joyce!

Hahaha! Thanks.
Thanks also to Permabear. Bought the three books you've recommended. I'm also au fait with Shakespeare, Vico and other influences on Joyce (cyclical theories of history etc...), but thanks for the tip.

PurpleBee

I usually can't read the end of books before the beginning but I thought it was an acceptable policy given that the end flows into the beginning... those last two pages of the wake are unbelievably powerful, really inspired me to make an attempt on the rest of it

Ostrom

For a first reading, is it preferable to go with an annotated edition, or an unedited original?

I've not read any Joyce beyond Dubliners (something I hope to address once my thesis is out of the way). I've read a number of penguin classics over the last month and have found the endnotes quite annoying - the mere presence of endnote numbers in the text is extremely off-putting to me, and as much as I later appreciate the elaboration / analysis, I find it completely interrupts the flow of narrative.

Permabear

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MagicMarker

efla wrote: »

For a first reading, is it preferable to go with an annotated edition, or an unedited original?

I've not read any Joyce beyond Dubliners (something I hope to address once my thesis is out of the way). I've read a number of penguin classics over the last month and have found the endnotes quite annoying - the mere presence of endnote numbers in the text is extremely off-putting to me, and as much as I later appreciate the elaboration / analysis, I find it completely interrupts the flow of narrative.

Speaking as someone who uses a kindle, I love those little numbers! They've come in handy on a number of occasions, just click on them to read the note and click back to go back on to the text, perfect!

Ostrom

MagicMarker wrote: »

Speaking as someone who uses a kindle, I love those little numbers! They've come in handy on a number of occasions, just click on them to read the note and click back to go back on to the text, perfect!

Didn't know they could do that - would be much preferable to multiple mini post-its. It is purely my own hang up though - I notice them, feel compelled to check before moving on, and the flow is completely interrupted.

Rosy Posy

I have a controversial and totally unsubstantiated theory that Joyce was actually suffering from some kind of degenerative brain disorder

Dubliners/Portrait of the Artist...normal coherent prose
Ullyses...getting a bit out there
Finnegan's Wake...wtf???

Its supposed to be a comic novel but I think that the joke's on the reader...

Kinski

Rosy Posy wrote: »

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Joyce probably thought the rest of humanity was suffering from a degenerative brain disorder!

Permabear wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, there is no annotated edition of Finnegans Wake. The best you can do is combine it with McHugh's Annotations, which are keyed spatially to the text.

I would recommend using McHugh. If you try to read Finnegans Wake with no annotations, you will probably give up after about 10 pages.

Have you read the Danis Rose edition yet, Permabear? The Wake is on my "to read shortly" list, but I'm not sure what edition to go with. I have a couple of different ones knocking about here somewhere, but the editors claim this one - which has just been published in an affordable Penguin edition - is the most readable. The pagination has been altered, so I wonder if using books such as the McHugh with it will be straightforward.

IrishMark

Thought I'd give a little update:
I've been reading FW for about 10 days now and am on page 9. While it has been slow going (I've been reading it out loud), I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm around half way through the Willingdone Museyroom section, trying to decipher it bit by bit. I should also say that I know a fair bit of it off by heart because of the wway I'm reading it as well.
I just wonder how, for those of you who have read it before, you each read it.
Best,
Mark.