Finnegans Wake - James Joyce

Finnegans Wake is one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon.There are four Parts or Books and seventeen chapters total in Finnegans Wake. The chapters lack titles, and while Joyce didn't offer potential chapter titles as he had for Ulysses, he did give titles to several portions that were published separately. Part 1: Dublin hod carrier Finnegan, Joyce's central figure, perishes after falling from a ladder while building a wall. HCE's wife ALP accuses him of being a scam after having her son Shem transcribe a letter about him and give it to another son Shaun. Part 2: The primary protagonists are Shem, Shaun, and Issy, who are banished from their home by their parents after they misjudged the color of a girl's eyes based on their gaze work. HCE is a Norwegian Captain who, via his marriage to a tailor's daughter, became domesticated. Part 3: The Four Masters' Ass describes how he believed he had heard and seen Shaun the Post's ghost while he was falling asleep. Part 4: The book is written as a collection of short stories, and it opens with a plea for daybreak. The river Liffey, represented by ALP, flows into the ocean at dawn to mark the end of Part IV.