I am therefore filled with admiration for John Vernon Lord who was asked two years ago to not only re-read the book, but to illustrate it for a new fine edition for The Folio Society. In fact I see it as something of a test, an entrance exam for a very exclusive club of readers - one which I have failed to gain entrance to a number of times. It reaches for something like a dream-state - a place beyond ordinary 'awake' literature. It is a bold expedition into language, deliberately entangled and peppered with puns, portmanteaus and wordplay. The 1939 book which took 17 years complete is a novel without genre or even recognisable plot or clear cast of characters. 'I have put the language to sleep' is how James Joyce described Finnegans Wake. The Folio Society's edition of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake has just been published - discover John Vernon Lord's exceptional illustrations and look inside his fascinating notebooks.
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