A book that is seemingly meaningless and unreadable, yet studied by many professors and inexplicably considered as one of the most important novels (is it even a novel?) of the 20th century.
Despite these obstacles, readers and commentators have reached a broad consensus about the book's central cast of characters and, to a lesser degree, its plot.
Finnegans Wake[sic] is a 1939 novel written by James Joyce. It took him 17 years to write, and may take nearly as long to read, as it is completely written in an idiosyncratic, made-up language that vaguely resembles English spoken with a thick Irish brogue.
Critics and scholars disagree about a lot about this book, but most agree that it portrays a man's dream, and that it's full of complex, layered allusions and jokes. Arguments still rage as to whether it has a plot.
Some people have suggested that reading it out loud is the easiest way to understand it, but if you attempt this feat, All The Tropes disclaims all responsibility for any long-term effects on your throat, vocal chords, or sanity.
If you would like to read a description written in the same style as the book, see the "Self-Demonstrating" tab on this page.
fore twith be fore thepayne settin. Like life, incomprehensible quadrupling abounding in nil tongues upon all multiples of meaning, looping, dream in written stylus, nary any point of plot to wink upon. Some situnamesar seen in great unorthodoxy, alike a common Earwicker the family, a Shem a man o' Pen, a most Post Shaun, an Issy too. Cycling words around the end, the line of 'riverrun' adjourning and the start of our "story."
Writerwrote from 1922 true 1939, James Joyce -- olfarther o Ulysses, Leopold Bloom end Stephen Dedalus -- bringusus by manderwander'd wordcourse through a recon struction of noctournal lyfe. Finnegan begin again to dreep the reader to view with logic gone and shadows aforefront, in persons in voices mixmatchmeltashovling from person orlity sleeptime visions and a gran mal logic two match.
Plot? they spake, what plot what plot what breaks in the truest formlessness of the night aimless wander wonder yonder comes the guide to lead the reader through the nightscenes dreams mutating 'vents, won after anauthor, clocked in froggy sleep and plane site buried down deunonitua languagements aboundfolt but mustly 'thin Joycean speach espeach't "Wakese" buy thoz who've sturdied Wake extansievely.
Like in dreams visions are musings no one two three things stay tonight the same in time anarrow; punword play, portman toes and crashcolliding words evoke invoke revoke refolk the unsure struck ansure of dreams, ill ollypopsical wit chains an whips an like the wind blows o'er the landscape hills of mine, mind, min'd forall is't Wirth.
Th'image o' Finnegan, brawly Finnegan, hod-carrier o' the Dublin foke ballad, laidout on happenstance O'Booq O'Storrie. HCE, explicated bellow, is Finn again, yet all o Eire Finnegan are and waking must per the titlewarning. iron he though that HCE immigrant wus and Irish naught -- there's mean in there, for he who seize and hearse what he rede. But is Finn again the dreamer, the HCE one in or hisson Shaun au Shem? Denatured dream in the certenvirnaty forsters conflick 'n' nawta schoolyards leaf the book ith opinterpretations shared 'tween them.
E'en mattress as base as the plotter so 'scured by chame's Choice 'n' the shiftteen nichtsure o' dreams themselves. Diffiring elements appen upon diffiring laVelles, what moight be grades o' sleep an' Wakefullness. The swirlingblendingconfusation o' one level in anarther as the dreamer rouses to drift arf unce agin cambeens to canfust th' raider 'bout whut 'appens whir and whayn -- and to-by hoom.
From dis fog o' narrowtive figures imerge and emmerse, simultitaneous lee plain many diff'rent roles for diff'rent folks 'ithin th' differin layers of the hallucidream act shun. But pollymorphic eatch, one's Manny and many's won. Readviewers say, prophessers professy, and nawn agri comp elite lee -- but some t'ing dynasties are major-generally greed 'pun:
"HCE": Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, th'new Finn again, face a'face o' Joyce hisself tho suffern indignities ne'er upon the author's author visited upon. Naught Irish but o' the fare Norse, naturizedally. Publican of Dublican, bilt a' Chapelizod; Dublin itself is innim, a cymbal o' James' Choice threw the book.
"ALP": Anna Livia Plurabelle, wyf to Earwicker, Irish girl. Where the Norse is Dublin, she bodies the river o' Liffey, sounding symbol pair'ed wi' 'er house band in 'ternal embracement and opposition; "A" and (h)E are all cityanrivers, Eve and Adam, fodder and mudder two Eire and Man. I mBanba óir!
Tween suns, two boya, ova names they have manny, tho buy Shem and Shaun th' two too to be seen by the reader most orphen. (Tho two Jerry + Kevin near most often they also answear and ardressed by the arthur's verse.) Mirrors and shadows and reflections and rivals thru the Wake, compare and contrast and contend 'gainst oneandother. Shaun, postman, confirmforms and waves no makes; Shem tha maaker o'art inninninnovates, pushpushes end velops and upsets carts. 'Pon compare a son, Shaun sinister seems, Shem steady and stolid. Time to time, tho, third one mistemerges o' the two, cold Tristram/Tristan, a sin these is o' theyr best.
Issy, dottir of HCE and ALP, iss Isolde two hair brathairs' Tristan, prize o'er witch day contend. Like Ess and Ess, she is oft of two minds, personably split in wais littoral and naught.
Circulocutating in ambulance surround these five (by five) are the doublin' folk, sporting cast ooh argh notnotnoteworthy inn there mysterenigmanature.
Amast hairpiece an spite o' (or 'cause o') th' difficulty won has in the readin', tho' naught wi'out cantroversey. Foist published cereally as twas ridden, wake discusst 'n' dis missile evoked 'mongst the literearlly seen; not till arfter Walledwear Too were rheaviews mor favoritable t'appeer. I' the messure oa wirk o' litrasure is th'enegy wi' which it's meenin is debayted, the Wake must be amo(n)k the greetest nouvelles in Ainglish. At Ann irate, what thou find ist up on this page is a laiter and lesson tense aquiverlent to the lendwitch yule find in the book itsownself.
Th' raydar who sakes anexplicanation en Ainglish playninsample to t'othertab or tha' oder Wiki shou' taike 'isself
(This Finnegans Wake pastiche was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for the Incomprehensible Arts, and by donations from viewers like Hugh. Thank Hugh.)
Genre Busting: To the point where The Other Wiki, which is usually very good at finagling a book into a particular genre, simply gives its genre as sui generis.[2] Of course, the first sentence of the article identifies it as "a work of comic fiction" as well.
Her Codename Was Mary Sue: HCE, as noted above; plus a number of the minor characters are based on his acquaintances.
Hurricane of Puns: Almost every single word of the book is a wordplay of some sort, or part of a wordplay. And Joyce didn't limit the puns to English, either -- by some official estimates, he crammed words from about sixty separate languages into the book, and you would have to know at least nine different languages other than English (including Latin, Greek, and especially Gaelic) to get half of the jokes.
The title itself is a pun, referencing the Irish folk song "Finnegan's Wake" as well as being a call for average Irishmen ("finnegan" as occasionally used within the book) to wake up (literally, politically or other). And no doubt there are other possible meanings as well.
I Have Many Names: Most everyone, thanks to the shifting dream-like writing.
Portmanteau: Just as an example, the word listed below under Written Sound Effect is made up from the words for "thunder" in ten different languages.
Reset Button: If you notice the first sentence of the novel and compare it to the last, you can see that the last sentence can continue right into the first one, thus starting the cycle once again.
Shadow Archetype: Twins Shaun and Shem are each other's shadows; it's also possible that alternate name pairs like "Jerry and Kevin" indicate a higher order of shadowing.
Talkative Loon: Gives the impression of being written by one at first glance, but is actually composed of very intricate wordplay in multiple languages.
Trope Namer: "Quark" was borrowed from here to name the subatomic particle.
↑AD 1132 saw the defilement of a nunnery at Kildare, particularly marked by the rape of the abbess; the man who ordered the attack, Dermot mac Murrough, did so as a move to make the abbess unfit for her office and force her removal in favor of a kinswoman of his own. Mac Murrough's lust for power caused a great deal of internal strife, and it was he who, some thirty-seven years later, offered an allegiance with the Normans which became the first of many long and humiliating occupations of Ireland. James Joyce, like many, traced Ireland's history of oppression, treachery, and sectarian strife firmly back to the rape of the abbess of Kildare.
↑That's "one of a kind" for those unfamiliar with the expression.
