VI.B.46.
Work in Progress"/Finnegans Wake Notebook (1937–1938)
Material Description
The manuscript is a diary or album, with green watered silk paper pasted to the front cover verso and front flyleaf recto as well as on the back flyleaf verso and back cover recto, covered in brown leather, the front of which is embossed with a rectangular floral design, and the notebook’s edges are stitched with leather. It is unlike any other extant "Work in Progress"/Finnegans Wakenotebook Joyce used. The gatherings are split but still partially held together by the stitching.
Joyce’s notes are in the following colored inks, pencils, and colored crayons:
| Writing Implement | Manuscript Pages |
|---|---|
| Green ink: | Front flyleaf verso, pp. [014], [015], [021]–[024], [028], [038], [044], [046], [048], [049], [050], [054], [055], [056], [060], [062], [064], [066], [068], [077], [078], [080], [084], [088], [092], [093], [094], [096], [098], [099], [100], [104], [107], [109], [110], [112], [115], [116], and [121]–[130] |
| Black ink: | pp. [001], [003]–[008], [034]–[037], [039]–[043], [045], [047], [048], [051]–[053], [061], [063], [065], [066], [067], [069]–[079], [081], [082], [083], [085], [086], [087], [089]–[092], [095], [097], [098], [099], [101], [102], [103], [105]–[109], [111]–[115], [117]–[120], [124], and [130]–[142] |
| Blue ink: | pp. [009], [010], [013], [014], [016]–[020], [025]–[027], [029]–[034], [037], [057], [058], [059], [087], and [088] |
| Blue pencil: | pp. [013], [014], and [017] |
| Lead pencil: | pp. [114] |
| Red crayon: | p. [124] |
Joyce used green, blue, orange, and red colored crayons to cross through the notes he had used in his manuscripts.
Collation
The manuscript now consists of 71 leaves (142 pages) of heavy, unlined paper. The manuscript is composed of 5 stitched gatherings (the 1st gathering is composed of 24 pages, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of 32 pages, and the 5th gathering of 22 pages); a leaf was torn from the notebook, between what are now pp. [120] and [121]: it is missing and not included in the pagination. 139 of the extant pages, as well as the front flyleaf verso, are inscribed; only 3 are blank: pp. [002], [011], and [012].
Measurements
The manuscript measures 20.4 x 14.2 cm.
Pagination
The pages are not numbered.
Dating
Joyce compiled this notebook from early December 1937 to February 1938 in Paris and in Zurich (TD 34).
Other Markings
"MADE IN ITALY" is stamped in lower left corner of the back cover.
Publication
The manuscript has been reproduced in black and white photo-facsimile (some of the pages with orange/red color filters) in JJA 40.113–238 and was edited by Danis Rose as James Joyce’s The Index Manuscript: "Finnegans Wake" Holograph Workbook VI.B.46 (Colchester: A Wake Newslitter Press, 1978).
Notes
Mme FranceRaphael, Joyce’s amanuensis, did not transcribe this notebook.