James Joyce's Finnegans Wake Illustrated: Volume 2 - Paperback

by John H. Boose (Author)

Some scholars see James Joyce's Finnegans Wake as a work of satire and irony; others see it as a playground for the English language. Its release into the public domain in many parts of the world enabled the production of this illustrated Volume. Finnegans Wake endures the reputation of being one of the most challenging works of fiction in the English language. When asked what he made of it, Ezra Pound contended, "Nothing so far as I make out, nothing short of divine vision or a new cure for the clap can possibly be worth all the circumambient peripherization." Oliver Gogarty believed it was "the most colossal leg pull in literature since Macpherson's Ossian." But if a picture can clarify a thousand words, then perhaps pictures can help illuminate Joyce's masterpiece. Finnegans Wake includes 219,035 words. At one picture per one thousand words, it would take only 220 pictures to fully explain the entire text. This illustrated book, Volume 2, contains Finnegans Wake Book 1, Chapters 3 through 7, with 53,565 words. With the addition of 295 illustrations, you can see that these five chapters are explained awfully thoroughly, with an over-explanation ratio of more than 5:1. So quickly can confusing things come to brightness. All the illustrations are authentic and promote the tradition of prickly debate started with the publication of Joyce's original book. As critic Ira Gurgitate proclaims, "It's a real piece of work." What They're Saying About Finnegans Wake Illustrated: "These illustrations look like I need a drink." - Rhoda Booke, Loose Change Quaarterly. "This is the best e-book I've ever read." - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Gomer's Almanac. "This is the perfect mixture of an unreadable book and 21st Century Dada." - Sheila Takya, The Paid Endorser. "So many pictures, so little art." - Amelia Barfup, The Hourly World News. "Even the worst book has an end." - Ira Gurgitate, The Pittsburgh Drifter. "What have I done to deserve this? Why was I born? Why am I living?" - Trudy Ages, The Trivial Messenger. "Even worse than I expected, which is saying something." - Rhoda Mule, KRUD Radio. "...Jeeves... Wooster... pictures... classic... cocktail time..." - Mike Easter, The Hard Times. "This book made me physically ill, even worse than Boose's other illustrated classics." - Myra Mains "If Boose isn't America's leading classics illustrator, I can see why." - Isabelle Ringing, The Illiterary Journal. "It's like attending a wake for someone who died decades ago, then being served Champagne that's been sitting open all that time." - Lucinda Head. "Boose is an unbelievable illustrator." - F. Stop Fitzgerald, Dept. of Fine Arts, Florida University. "Finnegans Wake Illustrated has the look and pacing of a two-camera sitcom filmed by a bunch of eighth graders and conceived by their less bright classmates." - Helen Wheels. "I'd rather be drinking." - Tyrone Shoelaces, The Daily Bungle. "Finnegans Wake Illustrated is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It will make your children stupid." - Curt Reply, The Hard Times. "...so indescribably bad that I do not intend to waste anyone's time by describing it." - Segovia Carpet. "This Dada book is truly a modern surreal experience." - Salvador Doily. "With the addition of all the pictures, it's now much funnier than any of my plays." - William Shakespeare, Spinning in his grave. "It is very strange. This Mr. Bunbury seems to suffer from curiously bad health." - Oscar Wilde. "...your pristopher polombos, hence our Kat Kresbyterians; the curt witty wotty dashes never quite just right at the trim trite truth letter... look at this prepronominal funferal, engraved and retouched and edgewiped and puddenpadded, very like a whale's egg farced with pemmican..." - James Joyce.

Author Biography

John Boose is currently a Fellow at the Constance Noring Institute for the Study of Illiterate Fiction, where his work on buffalo plucking has made him the subject of numerous experiments. He and Molly Boose have co-authored over twenty miscellaneous books, many copies of which have survived the purges (search Amazon with the key words "Miscellany" and "Boose"). They were the first to suggest the use of weasel snot as a non-stick literary coating. While interns at 2M's Boris Scilley Yellow Sticky Lab they illuminated both upper and lower brain approaches to left field theory and were co-guest editors (with Rufus Leaking) of "Do Trousers Matter?" John and Molly enjoy sharpening crayons, dulling others' wits through the application of delicious cocktails, cooking up mischief, and advocating monkey wrenching as a tactic of last resort.