Its first line dumps the reader into the middle of Dublin’s murky River Liffey, starting the story literally mid-stream: Housing even a preliminary Wake collection.”Īny page in this web site, contact our Web manager.Can there be a “first” line in a book which is a circle?įinnegans Wake, James Joyce’s notoriously perplexing final work, takes beginning in medias res to a whole new level. Because of its freshness ofĪpproach and positive contribution, it belongs in all libraries Of the comic flair and wit that so distinguishes this ‘funferall’ Text and its nuances but of even greater importance is his sense “ Bishop shows a masterful command of the The cloth edition, ISBN-10: 0-5, is out of print. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.) (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at or (608) 263-0734. John Bishop is associate professor of English at the Of the Dark will help all serious readers of the Wake get ‘You isįeeling like you was lost in the bush, boy?’ Joyce’s Book

Of the geography and sexuality of the Wake are fascinating.īishop brings a rare command of the text to his difficult enterprise,Īnd the organization and prose are models of clarity. In his reading, Freud, Vico, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead take on new meaning, and his accounts His reading of Finnegans Wake as a night-book produces a new sense of the book’s form, shape,Īnd structure. Is the first scholar to see in this notion the key to Joyce’s In Finnegans Wake was to ‘reconstruct the nocturnal life,’ Bishop “Though it is well known that Joyce claimed that his intention Joyce’s Book of the Dark gives us such a blend ofĮxciting intelligence and impressive erudition that it will surelyīecome established as one of the most fascinating and readable Finnegans Wake studies now available.” Them through an impressive array of theoretical circuitry.” Heart (as I surmise), he is able to multiply a thousandfold theĬoncords and discords of which a reader is aware, and to amplify He makes the text comment on itself,Īs it was constructed to do but, knowing the whole thing by

More boldly, more thoroughly, more imaginatively and more informedly His ideas and as well suited to Wake criticism.”

Insights, and does so with a stylistic method as original as Moreover, he presents a cornucopia of specific Bishop gives us a meaning for the Wake that is in many respects truer and more delightful “This magnificent, exhilarating book advances the state UW Press - : Joyce's Book of the Dark: Finnegans Wake, John Bishop

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