A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake: James Joyce's Masterwork

Since its publication in 1939, countless would-be readers of Finnegans Wake — James Joyce's masterwork that consumed a third of his life — have given up after a few pages and dismissed it as a "perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first "key" or guide to entering the fascinating, disturbing, marvelously rich world of Finnegans Wake. The authors break down Joyce's "unintelligible" book page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up thoughtful interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. A Skeleton Key was Campbell's first book, published five years before he wrote his breakthrough Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Since its publication in 1939, countless would-be readers of Finnegans Wake - James Joyce's masterwork, which consumed a third of his life - have given up after a few pages, dismissing it as a "perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first "key" or guide to entering the fascinating, disturbing, marvelously rich world of Finnegans Wake. The authors break down Joyce's "unintelligible" book page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up thoughtful interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. They outline the book's basic action, and then simplify — and clarify — its complex web of images and allusions. A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake is the latest addition to the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series.

Library Journal

To say that Finnegan's Wake is a difficult read is something of an understatement. At the time of its release in 1939, most contemporary critics and readers were quick to dismiss James Joyce's complex novel for its seeming incomprehensibility. Even Joyce's own brother Stanislaus, a longtime supporter of the author's work, found little to praise in this "rout of drunken words." It was in such a climate, in 1944, that Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) and Robinson (The Cardinal) first published this annotated, condensed, and simplified version of Joyce's text, which tries to make the brilliance and breadth of Joyce's volume accessible to average readers. Now back in print as part of the "Collected Works of Joseph Campbell" series, this new edition features an introduction, corrections, and editorial additions by Edmund Epstein (English, Queens Coll. & CUNY Graduate Ctr.). Though it has had its detractors over the years, this landmark introduction to understanding the intricacies of Joyce's final work is as valuable today as it was when it was first published more than 60 years ago. Highly recommended for all libraries.-William D. Walsh, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Perhaps most responsible for bringing mythology to a mass audience, Joseph Campbell’s works rank among the classics in mythology and literature: Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume The Masks of God, The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, and many others. Among his many awards, Campbell received the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Contribution to Creative Literature and the 1985 Medal of Honor for Literature from the National Arts Club. A past president of the American Society for the Study of Religion, Campbell was professor emeritus at Sarah Lawrence College in New York until his death in 1987.