[This is part of a longer series – previous post (I.3) – next post (I.5)] Chapter three ended with HCE safely back in his home ("Humph is in his doge" - 74) in spite of his trial on ambiguous charges.  Chapter four is, more or less, a restatement of chapter 3, so far as I can tell, just in a … Continue reading Finnegans Wake – Book I Chapter 4 →

[This is part of a longer series – previous post (I.2) – next post (I.4)] If Chapter 2 was easier going, chapter 3 gets much harder again. I.  Hosty's Decline and Fall I'm reasonably sure it begins with a voice that's cursing Hosty for his song, and then also bemoaning his (not HCE's) fall from grace: "Chest Cee!  'sdense!  Corpo … Continue reading Finnegans Wake – Book I Chapter 3 →

[This is part of a longer series - previous post (I.1) - next post (I.3)] This part of the text is way easier-going than the first chapter.  I think to some extent the first chapter is an overture to the book (just like the first 3 lines are an overture to the chapter).  And the … Continue reading Finnegans Wake – Book I Chapter 2 →

[This is part of a longer series - previous post (project intro) - next post (I.2)] Introduction Whenever you read a book you make assumptions as you go along.  There is some sort of “narrative contract” between you and the author.  Those contracts are all arbitrary and contingent, even in the most “genre-fiction”-type books you … Continue reading Finnegans Wake – Book I Chapter 1 →

[This is part of a longer series - next post (Book I Chapter 1)] There once was a man named Michael Finnegan He had whiskers on his chin-again Shaved them off and they grew in again Poor old Michael Finnegan begin again... I've just spent the last 10 weeks re-reading James Joyce's short stories, novels, Ulysses, … Continue reading The Most Daunting Reading Project of Them All →