title: How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake: A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide (Irish Studies in Literature and Culture)
author: Luca Crispi
description: "The most complete and accurate account to date of the composition of James Joyce's greatest work."&#8212;Roland McHugh, author of <I>Annotations to Finnegans Wake</I><br /><br />"A major step forward in the critical history of the book that is Joyce's most challenging work and one of the twentieth century's most significant artistic productions."&#8212;Derek Attridge, University of York<BR><br /><br />&#160;"Insightful and relevant, this volume significantly advances the explorations of earlier studies. It is the first comprehensive genetic discussion of <I>Finnegans Wake</I> chapter by chapter, and anyone seriously interested in Joyce and the Wake will benefit from reading it."&#8212;A. Nicholas Fargnoli, Molloy College<br /><br /><DIV><P>&ldquo;In total, the essays in this collection make a compelling case about how the Wake can be better understood by seeing it through its &lsquo;work in progress&rsquo;, that is, through its seventeen-year gestation. . . . <I>How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake</I> is a major achievement and represents a significant advance in genetic studies.&rdquo;&mdash;<I>Year&rsquo;s Work in English Studies </I></P></DIV>
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  PENGUIN BOOKS
  
  
  _Finnegans Wake_
  
  
  James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882. He was the oldest often
  children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. He
  was none the less educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University
  College, Dublin, where he gave proof of his extraordinary talent. In 1902,
  following his graduation, he went to Paris, thinking he might attend medical
  school there. But he soon gave up attending lectures and devoted himself to
  writing poems and prose sketches and formulating an ‘aesthetic system’.
  Recalled to Dublin in April 1903 because of the fatal illness of his mother,
  he circled slowly towards his literary career. During the summer of 1904 he
  met a young woman from Galway, Nora Barnacle, and persuaded her to go with him
  to the Continent, where he planned to teach English. The young couple spent a
  few months in Pola (now in Croatia), then in 1905 moved to Tr