Finnegans Wake
Limited issue, signed
JOYCE, James (1882-1941). Finnegans Wake. London: Faber & Faber, New York: The Viking Press, 1939.

First edition, limited issue, one of 425 copies signed by Joyce: with publisher's slipcase and box. A fine copy. "In his earlier books Joyce forced modern literature to accept new styles, new subject matter, new kinds of plot and characterization. In his last book he forced it to accept a new area of being and a new language. What is ultimately most impressive is the sureness with which, in the midst of such technical accomplishments, he achieved his special mixture of attachment and detachment, of gaiety and lugubriousness. He was no saturnine artificer contriving devices, but one of life's celebrants, in bad circumstances cracking good jokes, foisting upon ennuis and miseries his comic vision" (Ellmann James Joyce , p.717). This is copy 171. Connolly The Modern Movement 87; Slocum & Cahoon A49.

Large octavo. Original cloth; unprinted acetate dust jacket (one inch closed tear and crease to front panel); publisher's slipcase and cardboard box (labeled and numbered 171 in pencil); all housed together in custom box.