The books at the wake: a study of literary allusions in James Joyce's Finnegans wake

308 Pages·1960·14.31 MB·English

by  James S. Atherton

the Books at the Wake
A Study of Literary Allusions in
James Joyce's FINNEGANS WAKE
by James S. Atherton

THE BOOI(S AT THE WAKE
A Study of Literary Allusions
.
'in
James Joyci's Finnegans Wake
by
JAMES S. ATHERTON
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cm'bondale
Copyright © 1959, 2009 by James S. Atherton
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the original issue of this book
as follows:
Atherton, James S.
The books at the wake; a study of literary allusions in
James Joyce’s Finnegans wake.
Bibliography: p.
1. Joyce, James, 1882–1941. Finnegans wake—Sources.
2. Joyce, James, 1882–1941—Allusions. I. Title.
[PR6019.09F55 1974] 823'.9'12 74-5407
ISBN 978-0-8093-0687-9
ISBN 0-8093-0687-5
ISBN 978-0-8093-2933-5
ISBN 0-8093-2933-6
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. ∞
Contents
Introduction page II
PART 1. THE STRUCTURAL BOOKS 27
PART II. THE LITERARY SOURCES
I. The Manuscripts 59
2. Some typical books 72
3. The Irish writers 89
4. Swift, a paradigm of a God II4
5. Carroll, the unforeseen precursor 124
6. The Fathers 137
7. 'The world's a stage' 149
PART III. THE SACRED BOOKS
8. The Old Testament 169
9. The New Testament 181
10. The 184
II. The Book of the Dead 191
12. The Koran 201
13. The Eddas 218
14. Other Sacred Books 224
PART IV. APPENDIX AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Appendix: Alphabetical list of literary allusions 233
Bibliography I: Books 291
Bibliography II: Articles in periodicals 294
Index 297
7

Acknowledgements
My thanks are first due to my friend since schooldays, the late Arnold
Davenport, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool uni
versity, without whose encouragement this book would never have been
started, and under whose guidance much of it was written as a disserta
tion towards the degree of M.A.
I am also deeply indebted to two other friends: Adaline Glasheen,
the author of A Census ofF innegans Wake, with whom I have exchanged
letters almost weekly for the past six years and who has given me an
enormous amount of information on Joycean topics; and M. J. C.
Hodgart, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, the chief academic authority
on Finnegans Wake in this country, of whose work I have made con
siderable use, and who has given me much valuable advice, particularly
on Joyce's use of the Sacred Books. A more recent friend, but an
equally keen Joycean, Fritz Senn-Baldinger, of ZUrich, must also be
thanked-both for the information he has given me on Joyce's use of
Swiss-German and ZUrich, and for kindly offering to prepare the index.
Writing a book of this kind makes inordinate demands on libraries.
I am grateful to the librarians and staffs of the Wigan Public Library,
the Harold Cohen Library at Liverpool University, and the British
Museum Library for their unfailing courtesy and helpfulness. Thanks
are also due to the editors of English Studies and Comparative Literature
for permission to use material which has already appeared in their
journals; and to the James Joyce Trustees for permission to quote from
Finnegans Wake.
9

Introduction
'An argument/ollows' (222.21)
P
erhaps-this must be the first word on such a subject-a final
literary evaluation of Finnegans Wake will never be made, for
any such evaluation must follow and be based upon a complete
understanding of the book. No such understanding has yet been
reached and none seems to be in sight in spite of the increasing flow
of illustrative material. The article on James Joyce in the current
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica correcdy describes Finnegans
Wake as 'the extreme of obscurity in modern literature', and might
have added that it is not only extremely obscure but extremely long.
Joyce worked at it for over seventeen years, often spending more than
fourteen hours a day in composition and revision. To read through the
book once is a full-time occupation for a week, providing that the
reader is prepared to continue reading without pausing to consider
the meaning of the words before him. If he does stop to consider
there is no limit to the time he may spend; indeed Joyce claimed that
he expected his readers to devote their lives to his book. Since its first
publication in 1939 several hundreds of articles and over thirty books
have appeared explaining its profundities from v:u.;ous view1'oints and
in varying ways, but agreement has still not been reached on many
fundamental points. Indeed as research continues more complexities
are found and a considerable amount of odium theologicum seems to be
arising between the chief exegetes.
Even the basic plot or groundwork of the book has not been estab
lished with certainty. The most influential early attempt to explain the
Wake to the reading public was Edmund Wilson's article 'The Dream
of H. C. Earwicker' afterwards published in The Wound and the Bow.1
Wilson said that the whole book was an account of a dream by a
drunken publican in Chapelizod. Joyce remarked at the time in a letter
to Frank Budgen which has only just been published2 that 'Wilson
Edmund Wilson, The Wound and the Bow. See Bibliography.
1
~ Stuart Gilbert (Editor), The Letters of James Joyce. London: Faber and
Faber, I957, p. 405. Letter dated 'End July 1939'. (New York: Viking.)
II