On May 4, 1939, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce was first published.
It is one of the most extraordinary works of literature. The story is relatively simple and revolves around the dream-thoughts of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle, his daughter Issy and his twin-sons Shem and Shaun, sometimes also named differently. Earwicker builds cities, indestructable and for eternity and has for ever and ever to rebuild and reconstruct was was built before. It is a multilingual allusional playing with words, constructing puns, onomatopoeia, blending words and using, of course, as in "Ulysses"€ before the stream-of-consciousness-technique.
A short extract:
"And. She may be a mere marcella, this midget madgetcy, Misthress of Arths. But. It is not a hear or say of some amorous letter, signed Toga Girilis, (teasy dear). We have a cop of her fist right against our nosibos. We note the paper with her jotty young watermark: Notre Dame du Bon Marchais. And she has a heart of Arin! What lumililts as she fols with her fallimineers and nadianods. As a strow will shaw she does the wind blague, recting to show the rudess of a robur curling and shewing the fansaties of a frizette. But how many of her readers realise that she ist not out to dizzledazzle with a graith uncouthrement of postmantuam glasseries from the lapins and the grigs. Nuttings on her wilelife! Grabar gooden grandy for old almeanium adamologists like Dariaumaurius and Zovotrimaserovmeravmerouvian; (dmzn!) .." (p. 112/113, Faber edition of 1975).
Read out aloud!
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