Penguin Modern Classics: Finnegan’s Wake

Joyce’s final work, Finnegan’s Wake is his masterpiece of the night as Ulysses was of the day. Supreme linguistic virtuosity conjures up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dream. Joyce undermines traditional storytelling and all official forms of English and confronts the different kinds of betrayal – cultural, political and sexual – he saw at the heart of Irish history. Dazzlingly inventive, with passages of great lyrical beauty and much humour, Finnegan’s Wake remains one of the most remarkable works of the twentieth century.

‘An extraordinary performance, a transcription into a miniaturized form of the whole western literary tradition’
Seamus Deane