Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

Having done the longest day in literature with his monumental Ulysses (1922), James Joyce set himself an even greater challenge for his next book — the night. "A nocturnal state.... That is what I want to convey: what goes on in a dream, during a dream." The work, which would exhaust two decades of his life and the odd resources of some sixty languages, culminated with the 1939 publication of Joyce's final and most revolutionary work, Finnegans Wake. A story with no real beginning or end (it ends in the middle of a sentence and begins in the middle of the same sentence), this "book of Doublends Jined" is as remarkable for its prose as for its circular structure. Written in a fantastic dream-language, forged from polyglot puns and portmanteau words, the Wake features some of Joyce's most hilarious characters: the Irish barkeep Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, Shem the Penman, Shaun the Postman, and Anna Livia Plurabelle. Sixty years after its publication, it remains in Anthony Burgess's words, "a great comic vision, one of the few books of the world that can make us laugh aloud on nearly every page."

The 339th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - 6th on 100 Best Books (Montana State University)
  2. - 10th on 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction (Larry McCaffery)
  3. - 31st on The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time (The Novel 100)
  4. - 40th on 100 Essential Books (Bravo! Magazine)
  5. - 44th on Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels (Radcliffe Publishing Course)
  6. - 77th on The Modern Library | 100 Best Novels (Modern Library)
  7. - 100 Life-Changing Books (National Book Award)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Paperback 10990815 $8.50
Finnegans Wake (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) Paperback 45442 $13.04 $4.96 1999
Finnegans Wake Mass Market Paperback 974046 $66.50 $4.56 1959
Finnegans Wake (Modern Classics) Audio CD 988584 $14.15 $21.51 2009
Finnegans wake Hardcover 3548712 $30.00
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Hardcover 7097594 $6.98
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Hardcover 6868341 $7.99
Brouillons d'un baiser: Premiers pas vers "Finnegans Wake" (Du monde entier) (French and English Edition) Paperback 2058301 $26.43 $45.00 2014
Finnegans Wake Kindle Edition 70164 $2.99 2014
Finnegans Wake Kindle Edition 59797 2014
Finnegans Wake by Joyce, James ( Author ) ON Jun-29-2000, Paperback Paperback 1232156 $126.40 $11.99 2000
Finnegans Wake & Exiles (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 1267) Kindle Edition 40336 $0.99 2014
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte Paperback 776247 $12.93 2017
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte Paperback 903651 $15.75 2017
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte Paperback 903747 $15.75 2017
Finnegans Wake Audible Audiobook 18399 $35.53 2021
James Joyce (6 books): Ulysses, Dubliners, Finnegans Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chamber Music, Exiles - with audiobooks Kindle Edition 180652 $3.99 2021
Finnegans Wake Kindle Edition 372239 $2.99 2021
Finnegan's Wake Hardcover 2187965 $53.97
Finnegans Wake Hardcover 2577131 $94.95 $75.00
A Reading of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (Cassettes and Book) Audio Cassette 1509091 $73.67 1995
Finnegans Wake: Annotated Kindle Edition 552808 $2.99 2021
Anna Livia Plurabelle / Finnegan's Wake (Letras Universales) (Spanish Edition) Paperback 2543580 $697.08 2004
Finnegans Wake & Exiles (Timeless Wisdom Collection) Paperback 478382 $15.99 2016
Finnegans Wake (Wordsworth Classics) Paperback 37858 $5.99 $6.58 2012
Finnegans Wake(Publish in 1939) [Annotated] Kindle Edition 320134 $2.99 2021
Finnegans Wake Hardcover 2489432 $373.32 $45.99 1939
James Joyce Reads Selections from Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, with Cyril Cusak Reading Joyce Audio Cassette 2777095 $8.00 $7.00 1992
Finnegans Wake (Penguin Modern Classics) Kindle Edition 143806 2015
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte Paperback 666251 $43.06 2017
Finnegans Wake Paperback 590760 $450.99 2013
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte Paperback 2343380 $18.24 2016
James Joyce: The Complete Works: Dubliners, Ulysses, Chamber Music, Exiles, Finnegans Wake... (Bauer Books) (All Time Best Writers Book 25) Kindle Edition 322760 $0.99 2021
Finnegans Wake Paperback 220733 $13.24 2018
Finnegans Wake (Modern Classics) by James Joyce (2009-05-01) Audio CD 1297120 $39.06
Finnegans Wake: A Symposium Paperback 1667794 $12.25 $6.48 1972
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Hardcover 3158998 $768.57 $18.00 1967
Finnegans Wake. Gesammelte Annäherungen. Paperback 1080616 $11.79 $6.99 2001
Finnegans Wake. James Joyce (Oxford World's Classics (Paperback)) Paperback 1095305 $16.37 $7.66 2012
James Joyce (6 books): Ulysses, Dubliners, Finnegans Wake... WITH AUDIOBOOKS Kindle Edition 162844 $1.99 2020
Finnegans Wake Paperback 1009071 $12.95 2020
Penguin Classics The Restored Finnegans Wake Hardcover 2233160 $249.00 $913.58 2012
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Paperback 994194 $14.95 2023
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Paperback 3219205 $157.88 $30.00 1968
Finnegans Wake (Folio) (French Edition) Pocket Book 2373348 $16.21 $15.50 1997
Finnegans Wake Paperback 7545252 $35.22 $39.53 1982
Finnegans Wake. Testo inglese a fronte vol. 2 - III-IV Perfect Paperback 1846299 $18.18 $28.98 2011
Finnegans Wake Paperback 423025 $11.38 2015
Finnegans Wake (Modern Classics) Audio CD 1465227 $18.91 $11.99 1998
Finnegans Wake(Publish in 1939): James Joyce (Short Stories novel story) [Annotated] Kindle Edition 405774 $2.99 2022
Anna Livia Plurabelle: Finnegans Wake (Traduzioni da Joyce Vol. 4) (Italian Edition) Kindle Edition 1202006 $1.49 2022
A Shorter Finnegans Wake Kindle Edition 403212 $6.23 2023
Finnegans Wake Kindle Edition 1003534 $0.99 2022