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A Shorter Finnegans Wake
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are usually found in most lists of the great classics of the twentieth century. But, as Burgess points out in his introduction: 'they are highly idiosyncratic books and 'difficult' books, admired more often than read, when read, rarely read through to the end, when read through to the end, not often fully, or even partially, understood. This is of course especially true of Finnegans Wake. ...This present reduction of Finnegans Wake to the length of an ordinary novel-garnished with an introduction and a running commentary is my own attempt to bring a great masterpiece to a larger audience...' (the reduction is to that of about 1/3 of its original length).
It took Joyce 17 years to create this extraordinary book (and his final work), written in Paris after the publication of Ulysses. It is written not so much in English as in a language which combines, very often as puns, English with several other languages.
Burgess was a huge admirer of Joyce's work and a great interpreter. His introduction to the shortened version throws a massive light on the structure and meaning of the work and perhaps, most importantly, its position in the literary canon as a great comic book.
It took Joyce 17 years to create this extraordinary book (and his final work), written in Paris after the publication of Ulysses. It is written not so much in English as in a language which combines, very often as puns, English with several other languages.
Burgess was a huge admirer of Joyce's work and a great interpreter. His introduction to the shortened version throws a massive light on the structure and meaning of the work and perhaps, most importantly, its position in the literary canon as a great comic book.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
James Joyce
1,750 books9,577 followersJames Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and a pivotal figure in 20th-century modernist literature, renowned for his highly experimental approach to language and narrative structure, particularly his pioneering mastery and popularization of the stream-of-consciousness technique. Born into a middle-class Catholic family in the Rathgar suburb of Dublin in 1882, Joyce spent the majority of his adult life in self-imposed exile across continental Europe—living in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris—yet his entire, meticulous body of work remained obsessively and comprehensively focused on the minutiae of his native city, making Dublin both the meticulously detailed setting and a central, inescapable character in his literary universe. His work is consistently characterized by its technical complexity, rich literary allusion, intricate symbolism, and an unflinching examination of the spectrum of human consciousness. Joyce began his published career with Dubliners (1914), a collection of fifteen short stories offering a naturalistic, often stark, depiction of middle-class Irish life and the moral and spiritual paralysis he observed in its inhabitants, concluding each story with a moment of crucial, sudden self-understanding he termed an "epiphany." This collection was followed by the highly autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), a Bildungsroman that meticulously chronicled the intellectual and artistic awakening of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, who would become Joyce's recurring alter ego and intellectual stand-in throughout his major works.
His magnum opus, Ulysses (1922), is universally regarded as a landmark work of fiction that fundamentally revolutionized the novel form. It compressed the events of a single, ordinary day—June 16, 1904, a date now globally celebrated by literary enthusiasts as "Bloomsday"—into a sprawling, epic narrative that structurally and symbolically paralleled Homer's Odyssey, using a dazzling array of distinct styles and linguistic invention across its eighteen episodes to explore the lives of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in hyper-minute detail. The novel's explicit content and innovative, challenging structure led to its initial banning for obscenity in the United States and the United Kingdom, turning Joyce into a cause célèbre for artistic freedom and the boundaries of literary expression. His final, most challenging work, Finnegans Wake (1939), pushed the boundaries of language and conventional narrative even further, employing a dense, dream-like prose filled with multilingual puns, invented portmanteau words, and layered allusions that continues to divide and challenge readers and scholars to this day. A dedicated polyglot who reportedly learned several languages, including Norwegian simply to read Ibsen in the original, Joyce approached the English language not as a fixed entity with rigid rules, but as a malleable medium capable of infinite reinvention and expression. His personal life was marked by an unwavering dedication to his literary craft, a complex, devoted relationship with his wife Nora Barnacle, and chronic, debilitating eye problems that necessitated numerous painful surgeries throughout his life, sometimes forcing him to write with crayons on large white paper. Despite these severe physical ailments and financial struggles, his singular literary vision remained sharp, focused, and profoundly revolutionary. Joyce passed away in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1941, shortly after undergoing one of his many eye operations. Today, he is widely regarded as perhaps the most significant and challenging writer of the 20th century. His immense, complex legacy is robustly maintained by global academic study and institutions such as the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, which ensures his complex, demanding, and utterly brilliant work endures, inviting new generations of readers to explore the very essence of what it means to be hum
His magnum opus, Ulysses (1922), is universally regarded as a landmark work of fiction that fundamentally revolutionized the novel form. It compressed the events of a single, ordinary day—June 16, 1904, a date now globally celebrated by literary enthusiasts as "Bloomsday"—into a sprawling, epic narrative that structurally and symbolically paralleled Homer's Odyssey, using a dazzling array of distinct styles and linguistic invention across its eighteen episodes to explore the lives of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in hyper-minute detail. The novel's explicit content and innovative, challenging structure led to its initial banning for obscenity in the United States and the United Kingdom, turning Joyce into a cause célèbre for artistic freedom and the boundaries of literary expression. His final, most challenging work, Finnegans Wake (1939), pushed the boundaries of language and conventional narrative even further, employing a dense, dream-like prose filled with multilingual puns, invented portmanteau words, and layered allusions that continues to divide and challenge readers and scholars to this day. A dedicated polyglot who reportedly learned several languages, including Norwegian simply to read Ibsen in the original, Joyce approached the English language not as a fixed entity with rigid rules, but as a malleable medium capable of infinite reinvention and expression. His personal life was marked by an unwavering dedication to his literary craft, a complex, devoted relationship with his wife Nora Barnacle, and chronic, debilitating eye problems that necessitated numerous painful surgeries throughout his life, sometimes forcing him to write with crayons on large white paper. Despite these severe physical ailments and financial struggles, his singular literary vision remained sharp, focused, and profoundly revolutionary. Joyce passed away in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1941, shortly after undergoing one of his many eye operations. Today, he is widely regarded as perhaps the most significant and challenging writer of the 20th century. His immense, complex legacy is robustly maintained by global academic study and institutions such as the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, which ensures his complex, demanding, and utterly brilliant work endures, inviting new generations of readers to explore the very essence of what it means to be hum
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 14, 2007
Life is too short.
August 2, 2019
I'm very curious about the arrangement made between Anthony Burgess and the James Joyce estate concerning the publication of this book in 1968 ― at least, that is the earliest copyright listed in the copy I own. (The Burgess' two-page Forward to the book is dated 1965, and I've read elsewhere that the book was allegedly first published in 1966. This last date seems most probable to me.) I can only imagine that the necessary agreement between Burgess and the Joyce family was reached as a stratagem to, it was hoped, raise interest in and promote sales of the actual novel called Finnegans Wake.
What we have here is a peculiar artifact that is neither literature nor exegesis thereof: neither fish nor flesh, as it were. In fact it is a marketing device.
The positive aspects first.
Immediately in the wake of the Forward comes an eighteen page essay entitled by Burgess "What It's All About." Here we find what I deem to be the most succinct and pithy summary of Finnegans Wake ever. I daresay a novice could make very good progress all the way through Finnegans Wake armed with no more assistance than this essay, and in the future I will so advise anyone who asks my opinion on the matter. Burgess here is definitely no go-to-and-be-all, but this essay is a superb go-to preparatory to a first read.
What's irritating, or at least overwhelmingly hebetudinous, about Burgess' book? Its main "text," which follows the Forward and the essay.
Here Burgess (was it indeed he?) has taken a chainsaw to Finnegans Wake and reproduced enormous blocks of it, allegedly boiling it down to a third of its actual size. I've no interest in confirming the accuracy of that fraction. Burgess occasionally helpfully (?) interrupts this bowdlerized, or expurgated, or castrated text with brief passages in his own hand in which he tells us what we've just read. Fortunately these passages are quite brief and proportionately few in number. I did not bother to read the Finnegans Wake material which comprises the bulk of "Burgess'" book, because when I want to read Joyce I prefer to read Joyce, so instead I only read Burgess' interpositions. So for me, A Shorter Finnegans Wake was a very short read. I cannot imagine anyone ever reading A Shorter Finnegans Wake as a stepping stone before reading Joyce's book.
Who gets credit for this book? That is to say, who profited from its sale? Certainly it contains far more words written by James Joyce (albeit those words might be as fragments recovered after a mostly devastating explosion at a publishing house) than by Anthony Burgess. The book appears to be called A Shorter Finnegans Wake, and the cover says it's "edited" by Anthony Burgess, but the title page refers to: "A Shorter Finnegans Wake, James Joyce." Certainly Joyce can't be blamed for this literary massacre, however.
Some devotees of Joyce swear by Anthony Burgess, while others swear at him. Burgess' books on the subject of Joyce are often said to make Joyce more accessible; contrived to interpose a friendly face between the reader and Joyce. Be that as it may, I'll be the first to proclaim that Burgess' essay in this book is valuable. The rest though . . .
What we have here is a peculiar artifact that is neither literature nor exegesis thereof: neither fish nor flesh, as it were. In fact it is a marketing device.
The positive aspects first.
Immediately in the wake of the Forward comes an eighteen page essay entitled by Burgess "What It's All About." Here we find what I deem to be the most succinct and pithy summary of Finnegans Wake ever. I daresay a novice could make very good progress all the way through Finnegans Wake armed with no more assistance than this essay, and in the future I will so advise anyone who asks my opinion on the matter. Burgess here is definitely no go-to-and-be-all, but this essay is a superb go-to preparatory to a first read.
What's irritating, or at least overwhelmingly hebetudinous, about Burgess' book? Its main "text," which follows the Forward and the essay.
Here Burgess (was it indeed he?) has taken a chainsaw to Finnegans Wake and reproduced enormous blocks of it, allegedly boiling it down to a third of its actual size. I've no interest in confirming the accuracy of that fraction. Burgess occasionally helpfully (?) interrupts this bowdlerized, or expurgated, or castrated text with brief passages in his own hand in which he tells us what we've just read. Fortunately these passages are quite brief and proportionately few in number. I did not bother to read the Finnegans Wake material which comprises the bulk of "Burgess'" book, because when I want to read Joyce I prefer to read Joyce, so instead I only read Burgess' interpositions. So for me, A Shorter Finnegans Wake was a very short read. I cannot imagine anyone ever reading A Shorter Finnegans Wake as a stepping stone before reading Joyce's book.
Who gets credit for this book? That is to say, who profited from its sale? Certainly it contains far more words written by James Joyce (albeit those words might be as fragments recovered after a mostly devastating explosion at a publishing house) than by Anthony Burgess. The book appears to be called A Shorter Finnegans Wake, and the cover says it's "edited" by Anthony Burgess, but the title page refers to: "A Shorter Finnegans Wake, James Joyce." Certainly Joyce can't be blamed for this literary massacre, however.
Some devotees of Joyce swear by Anthony Burgess, while others swear at him. Burgess' books on the subject of Joyce are often said to make Joyce more accessible; contrived to interpose a friendly face between the reader and Joyce. Be that as it may, I'll be the first to proclaim that Burgess' essay in this book is valuable. The rest though . . .
July 10, 2022
In my opinion, Burgess does a fine job of keeping the most memorable parts of Finnegans Wake while cutting out some of the verbiage (which does get a bit onerous for me about three quarters of the way through the book, particularly in the chapter set in Earwicker's pub).
Burgess seems like the kind of person you would want for this kind of project: he has written a book about Joyce, and books on language (seems like relevant background for Joyce's "novel" of foreign puns). Plus, like Joyce, Burgess has experimented with linguistic play, most notably in the "Nadsat" spoken by the narrator of Burgess's A Clockwork Orange.
I read this a couple of times, somewhere in the period 1994-7 (?) Lately, I have been thinking about possibly re-reading it.
Acquired 1994
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
Burgess seems like the kind of person you would want for this kind of project: he has written a book about Joyce, and books on language (seems like relevant background for Joyce's "novel" of foreign puns). Plus, like Joyce, Burgess has experimented with linguistic play, most notably in the "Nadsat" spoken by the narrator of Burgess's A Clockwork Orange.
I read this a couple of times, somewhere in the period 1994-7 (?) Lately, I have been thinking about possibly re-reading it.
Acquired 1994
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
January 16, 2026
Burgess does a fine job of distilling the main elements of the story in this substantially abridged version of Finnegans Wake. The introduction deserves particular praise in offering guidance through, what is, a exceptionally complicated novel. Burgess’ comments throughout the body of the text are insightful but very brief - I would have liked to see more substantive commentary to guide us through the story.
September 26, 2020
Anthony Burgess, un gran epígono y estudioso joyciano, al cuál le dedica varios libros, creó con el consentiminto de la familia esta edición "resumida", que muchos critican como una operación comercial. Sin embargo, su introducción es esencial para tener una visión de conjunto de la sinopsis de la novela, capítulo capítulo y de forma ordenada, sintética y completa. Y el libro no es ninguna condensación, sino una antología de fragmentos completos y sin abreviar, unidos por resúmenes que dan cuenta de aquellos otras secciones suprimidas para poder seguir la novela en su continuidad. No es válida para leer el Finnegans, pero puede ser muy valiosa como guía de lectura.
April 30, 2018
This did not really add to my understanding of Finnegans Wake. The introduction is good, but it mostly covers -- and is based upon -- the same ideas as the Skeleton Key by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, and although what seem to be significant excerpts are chosen, they actually felt more difficult to understand when presented here, in this manner. The Skeleton Key was a much more useful as a companion text. Though I don't think this was meant as a companion text, it is no more useful as a primer.
August 21, 2016
This was hilarious - like sleep itself is !
June 29, 2021
Okaynono ... I just can't read it. I did enjoy Anthony Burgess' longish introduction about how many people can't get through the book as Joyce wrote it, and how hard it was to shortenedit to "manageable" length, and I did try. I know it's extremely weird and definitely unique. I wrote down some of the melded words that Joyce wrote ... I realize that I've done that too, but definitely not every other word in a sentinatrance. (Get it?). I do have, for example, "eatlust" sometimes. I can eat an entire half gallon of icecreamyouscreamweallget.... "plotty existence" "decasualization" "overpast roots" and "plentymuch". Anyhooareyou, you may want to try reading this if you tootlehorn couldn't get through Joyce's original.
The weird thing is that I opened next a Cynthia Ozick book and discovered some of the same rhythms, if not the words. More anon.
~ Linda Campbell Franklin
The weird thing is that I opened next a Cynthia Ozick book and discovered some of the same rhythms, if not the words. More anon.
~ Linda Campbell Franklin
September 18, 2012
What an excellent way to experience Finnegans Wake. Burgess is a fine guide.
May 24, 2023
Burgess was many things, novelist, literary critic, composer, public intellectual. But I think he also saw himself as a teacher, using his considerable critical gifts to render accessible to a wider readership difficult texts. Joyce was his biggest project in this regard. He published 'Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader' in 1965 and was invited by Faber to edit ‘Finnegans Wake’ the year after. What he achieves is, I think, more effective than either TS Eliot or Harry Levin's earlier attempts. The obvious point is that Burgess had more scope (both the other editors were contending with the entirety of Joyce’s output) and was able to produce a more substantial version. It may sound counterintuitive I know to say the longer abridgement is better if your aim is to simplify by shortening, but there are limits and a balance to be struck if the reader is to have anything approaching an authentic experience. The text as cut by Burgess amounts to about a third of the book's original length. In addition there is a long, helpful Introduction which makes a really excellent attempt at laying out clearly context, structure, narrative and language and commentaries at various stages which help to (re)orientate one.
I am sorry to make the obvious point that in the end one can only truthfully judge the success of this endeavour by reading the entire text but I have somehow always avoided doing so and the resultant pang of regret that shying away has caused has returned with periodic and increasing intensity. So Galileo's reissue seemed an ideal opportunity and so it's proved. This will always be a precious, difficult, incompletely understood and beautiful text but Burgess has for me rendered it more accessible and for that I am grateful.
I have to end with a technical note. The eBook version is almost unusable because the actual text of Finnegans Wake is - unbelievably - rendered as graphics. Even on a Kindle Scribe you start to get a headache after a while peering at the dimly illuminated and small type. I got a refund from Amazon and ordered the paperback about which I have no complaints. But honestly, if this was all Galileo could afford to do, it would have been better not to offer an eBook at all.
I am sorry to make the obvious point that in the end one can only truthfully judge the success of this endeavour by reading the entire text but I have somehow always avoided doing so and the resultant pang of regret that shying away has caused has returned with periodic and increasing intensity. So Galileo's reissue seemed an ideal opportunity and so it's proved. This will always be a precious, difficult, incompletely understood and beautiful text but Burgess has for me rendered it more accessible and for that I am grateful.
I have to end with a technical note. The eBook version is almost unusable because the actual text of Finnegans Wake is - unbelievably - rendered as graphics. Even on a Kindle Scribe you start to get a headache after a while peering at the dimly illuminated and small type. I got a refund from Amazon and ordered the paperback about which I have no complaints. But honestly, if this was all Galileo could afford to do, it would have been better not to offer an eBook at all.
July 3, 2023
What's it all about, Anthony? A great talent, Anthony Burgess, tackles the last and most difficult novel by a genius, James Joyce. Both men were lapsed Catholics, polyglots and modernists. The extremely valuable introduction "What's it All About?" is worth reading, but chopping up GW into parts is like taking a chainsaw to a great filet mignon. If Joyce wanted a condensed version he would have said so.
Do yourself a favor an, after reading Burgess' intro, lep into the novel, at any point. The prose will bewitch you even if you can't find a plot.
Do yourself a favor an, after reading Burgess' intro, lep into the novel, at any point. The prose will bewitch you even if you can't find a plot.
July 17, 2022
Read in conjunction with the complete unabridged FW, so only for Burgess’s interjections that provide some context on what happens on this baffling novel. Helpful but probably not much needed in the days of the internet.
August 24, 2021
Not easier, just shorter, containing all the "greatest hits." Still, a good way to get your feet wet in a pool that can seem overly daunting (my best advice when tackling FW is simply to enjoy the ride as best you can!). Burgess' introduction is a great way in, and his little interpolations along the way are quite helpful in grounding/reassuring the reader. The book is not as crazy as it seems, but as (I believe) Johnson said of Paradise Lost, "No one ever wished it longer." This, and Campbell's Skeleton Key provide good points of entry.
August 13, 2024
This is definitely not for everyone- but wow, I’m glad I read it. If you can’t handle ‘streams of consciousness’ don’t even look at the first page.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews