Rare Book of the Day – Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress. First Edition. (Featuring Samuel Beckett's First Appearance in Print)
This one is pretty unique. It's a collection of critical essays and letters concerning James Joyce's book Finnegan's Wake, which wasn't published until 10 years later, but had appeared in discrete sections under the working title of 'Work in Progress.' Finnegan's Wake was Joyce's final work, taking over seventeen years to complete. It's considered one of the most difficult books written in the English language, a titanic piece of avant-garde writing consisting of expansive linguistic experiments, a stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations, and an abandonment of narrative conventions.
The contributors were all friends or acquaintances of Joyce's, and Samuel Beckett's piece, entitled "Dante, Bruno, Vico, Joyce," marks his first appearance in print. This is the first edition, first printing, published by the famous Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1929.
Here's the last paragraph from Finnegan's wake, to give you a taste:
“So. Avelaval. My leaves have drifted from me. All. But one clings still. I'll bear it on me. To remind me of. Lff! So soft this morning, ours. Yes. Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair! If I seen him bearing down on me now under whitespread wings like he'd come from Arkangels, I sink I'd die down over his feet, humbly dumbly, only to washup. Yes, tid. There's where. First. We pass through grass behush the bush to. Whish! A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, far! End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the—riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”
Joyce:
anather lovely writing i see here its beautifull thankyou for shareing.@rarebooksleuth