Joyce kept the title of the work a closely guarded secret for many years whilst issuing sections of the work for publication entitled «Work in Progress.» The title came from the popular Irish ballad about a hod carrier called Finnegan who falls to a supposed death from a building but is revived by a skite of whisky which is thrown in the drunken melee that ensues at his wake. He found, due to the perceived obscurity of the text that even his closest allies lost faith in his last artistic venture, finding it too obscure and occluded to penetrate. Like all of Joyce’s works Finnegans Wake was dogged by publication controversy. Joyce celebrated its eventual publication on February 2nd 1939. «Finnegans Wake,» Joyce’s final work was created over a period of fifteen years with composition starting in 1923.
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