FINNEGANS WAKE by Joyce, James - 1939

London: Faber and Faber, 1939. Large octavo. Gilt cloth. Usual tan offset from free endsheets to facing pages, ownership signature of poet Donald J. Paquette on free endsheet, a few stray marks to cloth, else a very good copy, without dust jacket. First British edition, trade issue, published on the same day as the U.S. trade edition from Viking, and the limited edition bearing Faber and Viking's joint imprint. This copy has the publisher's perforated stamp: "Complimentary Copy Not for Sale" in the lower margin of the terminal text leaf. One of a total first printing of 3400 copies, of which 950 copies in sheets were destroyed. "If Finnegans Wake is a key book, it is a key which needs a key. The Wake reminds me of the unfinished obelisk which lies on its side at Assuan, yet it has passages of unearthly beauty (particularly the last page) and huge comic scenes" - Connolly. MODERN MOVEMENT 87. SLOCUM & CAHOON A47.