James Joyce - At the mention of the Finnegans in 2 volumes. Gift books bound in leather.

"At the mention of the Finnegans"

Joyce began work on the novel on March 10, 1923. Excerpts from the novel began to appear in print in 1924 under the title "Work in Progress" (this name was proposed by the English writer and publisher Ford Madox Ford in 1924). The first was in April 1924 in the French magazine TRANSATLANTIC REVIEW, edited by Ford.

Over the next 14 years, the publication of excerpts of the novel in magazines and books used this name. In addition, excerpts of the novel were published under the title "Fragment of an Unpublished Work". Also, individual excerpts were published in the form of separate booklets with appropriate titles, for example, "Anna Livia Plurabelle", "Tales Told of Shem and Shaun", "Two Tales of Shem and Shaun", "Haveth Childers Everywhere", "The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies", "Storiella as She Is Syung".

In 1993, a selection of ten excerpts included in the drafts of this novel was published under the title "Finn's Hotel", edited by Danis Rose and subsequently translated into several languages.

Joyce for a long time did not disclose the name of the novel that had already been published, offering his friends to try to guess it. The name "Finnegan Wake" is taken from the Irish ballad of the same name (with the exception of Joyce's double "N"), which humorously describes the death and resurrection of Tim Finnegan, a big drinker. Tim falls down the stairs and is presumed dead, but when whiskey is accidentally spilled on him at the funeral, he "resurrects" and joins in the general fun. Joyce uses Tim as a comic prototype for all the dying and resurrected.