Finnegans Wake (Wordsworth Classics)

When I first heard of a book written by someone who would simply invent new words to get across what he means, I initially saw the idea as the ramblings of a madman. I got it, opened it up, and...well, what do you think it was? A reinvention of what meaning even is. This is not a book you read, but a book you feel. This stream of consciousness is a linguistic wonder to the extent that there are academic papers trying to get to the bottom of it. I doubt anyone ever will. What I felt is hard to describe, but if I were to express it in a single word, it would be awe. I would argue that Joyce was a genius...in the Adam Kadmon sense, if you get what I'm saying.

I've given this book 5 stars and because I am simply not intelligent enough to say anything about it's. For me it has unintelligible contents. I will give it many goes at reading it. But I can't see a way in for me it's a hard slog. Nevertheless it is held in extremely high esteem, so I bow to the superior mind.

Words cannot express what inarticulate people want to say. Conversely, exceptionally eloquent people (including writers like James Joyce), while not struggling with self-expression, sometimes face difficulties making themselves understood. 'Finnegan's Wake', along with Joyce's other widely acknowlledged magnum opus, 'Ulysses', has an almost intimidating effect on people who have never read it. This is due to its reputation for being complex, lengthy and so erudite as to be virtually incomprehensible. Readers who might well think nothing of ploughing through Stephen King's weighty tomes (many of his titles exceed 700 pages, with Finnegan's Wake extending to a little over 600) are deterred by the famous book's reputation. I first read Joyce when I was a young boy (perhaps seven or eight-years-old) starting with A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man and I enjoyed then, as I do now, his richly inventive, playful prose. I suppose by the time I read Ulysses, many years later as an adult, I was comfortable with a familiar author and I found the epic volume easily accessible. I cannot influence another person's taste with my personal opinion, which is all I am offering here. Some people will not like his style and that's fair enough. For my part, I can't face Tolstoy, although my admiration for him as a writer and a man is genuine and great. I will simply say that if you enjoy words, give Finnegan's Wake a try. As for failing to understand it, who cares? Generations of critics have argued the case for the meanings they individually have built careers around identifying in the book, but you and I can simply read for pleasure. It is, after all, a work of fiction.

But the book is hard going - still worth it though - fantastic - perfect antidote to all the crap coming at people these days including Trump and Billy Bunter Johnston

What a joy of imagined sound and vision! 'What? Reading Finnegan's Wake!' people said to me. 'But there's no plot, no inciting incident, no main dramatic question, no tension-builds. It's unreadable pretentious gobbledegook!' Oh well, maybe words just aren't their medium then. So, read widely and wildly, chill and chew thoroughly, and be at litter rarely piece with your shelf, says I.

This is the most amazing book ever written. Impossible to comprehend as it is, it it clear that Joyce chose every single word with meticulous care and precision. Every sentence is a poem, tickling the imagination and twisting your sense of grammar and language. Each and every line forces you to reconsider what you thought you know. Read it out aloud - taste the words with your ears and hear them with your tongue.

will take a few years to read but not, of course, understand...

This is a challenging read and having just picked away at it from the start it will take some patience, concentration plus imagination to get through it. A book with no beginning and no ending.

Finnegans Wake, un livre très difficile d'accès mais oeuvre géniale de James Joyce. Ici en version originale.

Genial

Bi sıkıntısı yok, sadece yazı kalitesi düşük ama fiyata bakınca gayet yeterli

edição econômica, muito boa qualidade. não espere entender mais de um parágrafo seguido....

何年か前にこの作品の日本語訳を読んで、あまりの訳のわからなさにギブアップしたのですが、たまたまアマゾンの洋書でこの本を見つけ、あまりにも安いので買ってみました。もちろんほとんどわかりませんが、英語？の配列、並び、流れが何とも不思議でナンセンスな魅力にあふれていて、偶然に開いたページからでも、インスピレーションがわいてきます。これは音楽で言うと、サンプリング・ミュージックや音響系にあたるもので、今よりはるか昔にジェイムス・ジョイスという一人のアイルランド人の作家がこのような超先鋭的な作品を残したことは、もっともっと多くの人に知ってほしいし、文学史に金文字で大書すべきことではないでしょうか。ナンセンス文学を徹底的に探求したい人のバイブルです。この値段なら絶対買って損はしません。