SOME 200 guests attended the presentation of an amended edition of James Joyce’s final work, Finnegans Wake, in Dublin last night.
The new version of the 1939 work has been typographically reset for the first time in its publishing history, incorporating some 9,000 minor alterations.
Among those present at Dublin Castle were Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, writers Seamus Deane and John Banville, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and artist Robert Ballagh.
Danis Rose, one of the two editors of the new edition, paid glowing tribute to Joyce, “who in often adverse conditions continued year in, year out, to write and shape with no external support, what is Ireland and the world’s greatest fairytale”.
Mr Lenihan said he was delighted to host the event after a busy day with “matters of State”.
There was a light moment when the Minister’s address in Dublin Castle was briefly interrupted by a guest who asked loudly: “Is Nama mentioned in this book?”
“It might be,” Mr Lenihan replied. “You don’t know how prescient Joyce may have been.”
The book, written by Joyce over a 17-year period, is renowned for its complex linguistic experiments and abandonment of conventions of plot and character.