A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, Joseph Campbell
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, Joseph Campbell
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A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
Unlocking James Joyce's Masterwork

Author: Joseph Campbell, Henry Morton Robinson, Edmund L. Epstein

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 16 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/16/2020

Synopsis

Countless would-be readers of Finnegans Wake — James Joyce’s 1939 masterwork, on which he labored for a third of his life — have given up after a few pages and “dismissed the book as a perverse triumph of the unintelligible.” In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with novelist and poet Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first guide to understanding the fascinating world of Finnegans Wake. Page by page, chapter by chapter, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake outlines the basic action of Joyce’s book, simplifies and clarifies the complex web of images and allusions, and provides an understandable, continuous narrative from which the reader can venture out on his or her own. This edition includes a foreword and updates by Joyce scholar Dr. Edmund L. Epstein that add the context of sixty subsequent years of scholarship.

About Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood loved to read about American Indians and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History, where he became captivated by the museum’s collection of totem poles. From those days onward, Campbell’s interest in mythology grew and deepened. He was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and, after earning a master’s degree, continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich.Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, and the Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, introduced his views to millions of people.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on June 23, 2017

Sort of interesting introduction (less so than that in the Oxford Press edition of FW) and a bit confusing to follow while reading FW in parallel......more

Goodreads review by James on August 16, 2016

Mankind should be grateful for Campbell's 1st elucidation of FINNEGANS WAKE (FW) - or someone else may have "translated" the text, but not as expertly. Sadly many readers start with "A Skeleton Key..." or read it without first spending more time with FW, correctly most criticisms center on Campbell'......more

Goodreads review by in8 on May 21, 2015

finnished! finnel thawts: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Mike on January 25, 2017

If you're going to read Finnegans Wake (and let me make it clear that I'm not saying you should), this companion is incredibly valuable. The one knock against it is that the authors ascribe such lofty powers and all encompassing intent to Joyce that they are more acolytes than critics. On the one ha......more

Goodreads review by Rhonda on November 09, 2012

I was just reminded, after reading an upbeat review of Finnegan's Wake, how my reading years ago would have been impossible had it not been for this book. While I am not entirely sure it was exhaustive, it was more than enough food for thought. Finnegan's Wake was frustrating in a way I cannot defin......more

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