Finnegans Wake

JOYCE, James.  Finnegans Wake.  London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1939.  First edition, first printing of the trade issue of Joyce's last novel, sold simultaneously with the signed limited issue on 4 May 1939. 

Large octavo, half-title present, 628 pp. Publisher's red cloth, gilt lettering with repeat triple ruling to spine, top edge stained yellow and others deckled, plain endpapers; with original, unclipped (25s. net) and recently professionally restored dustwrapper.

A very good book, with binding square and firm, with slight bumping to spine tips and corners and slight darkening to extremities, with heavy foxing to edges and prelims but only sporadically throughout, with a small contemporary inscription to upper-front corner of FFEP. Professional repairs were carried out by the Black Cat Bindery in Somerset to reinforce the book’s hinges, along with careful colour restoration to a rubbed area at the foot of the front cloth cover.

With the original dustwrapper that recently underwent a comprehensive, non-invasive conservation treatment by the wonderfully-talented conservator Charlotte Nickels of Paperback Conservation, based in Dorset, UK. The dustwrapper - that was in a rather poor initial state with significant loss - was dry cleaned and carefully washed to remove surface dirt, reduce acidic discolouration, and strengthen the paper fibres, followed by deacidification to neutralise acidity and provide long-term protection. Tears and losses were repaired with fine Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste, with subtle infilling and retouching to visually reintegrate the original design. All repairs carried out can be seen on the reverse of the wrapper. Contemporary inscription to the front flap of the dustwrapper has been kept. The dust jacket is now safe in an archival wrapper.

The book is housed in a custom clamshell box covered in matching rust buckram and lined with bright yellow suede, with title and author to a leather label to spine; made by The Black Cat Bindery in Somerset. The front cover of the clamshell is blocked with a spiral rendered in an unbroken line that starts with a minimalist portrait of Joyce, depicted in his characteristic hat, round glasses and bow tie, and continues to unfurl outward. This motif is inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s “Symbol of James Joyce”, a simple spiral created by the Romanian-born artist as a portrait of Joyce, first used as the frontispiece to Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (a limited edition production of excerpts from Finnegans Wake, published the Black Sun Press in 1929). Brancusi remarked of his spiral design: “Joyce is like that: he departs from one point, and you’ll never meet him again.” The rear cover is repeatedly blocked with Joyce's famous onomatopoeic coinage and representation of the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve in the book, built from words meaning “thunder” from various languages. The word is arranged in a circular formation that visually echoes the front cover’s spiral design, while a scattering of gilt musical notes from the song Finnegan’s Wake decorates its centre, reflecting Joyce’s deep appreciation for the rhythm and melody of language.

"The most conspicuous innovation of Finnegans Wake is its use of 'dream-language'. After Ulysses, Joyce believed that he had 'come to the end of English', and his last novel is a pervasive layering of multilingual puns in successive drafts which produces a fabric rich in semantic possibilities." (ODNB)