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VI.B.43.

Work in Progress"/Finnegans Wake Notebook (1933)


Material Description

The manuscript is a sturdy pocket-sized notebook, vertically bound in laminated black imitation snakeskin covers over boards. Light green paper is pasted to the insides of the boards and the outer sides of the flyleaves. All of the pages have blue colored edges. The spine has become detached from the front cover of the notebook but is still attached to the back. All of the notes are in Joyce’s hand in lead pencil.
Joyce used this type of notebook sporadically in 1924, 1925, 1933, 1935–1936, and then again 1939 (also see MSS VI.B.14, VI.B.7, VI.B.40, and VI.B.48).

There are no colored crayon markings in this notebook.


Collation

The manuscript consists of 68 leaves (136 pages) of light black lined graph paper in 6 stitched gatherings (the 1st and 6th gatherings are composed of 20 pages and the 2nd through 5th of 24 pages); none of the pages are detached. 129 pages, as well as the front flyleaf verso, both sides of the back flyleaf and the back cover recto, are inscribed; 7 are blank: pp. [031], [037], [039], [040], [041], [046], and [047]. Joyce filled pp. [074] and [075] upside down.


Pagination

The pages are not numbered.


Dating

Joyce probably compiled this notebook from mid to late 1933 in Switzerland and Paris (TD 32).


Measurements

The manuscript measures 14.6 x 9.5 cm.


Other Markings

There is a stationer’s mark in lead pencil in the top right corner of the front flyleaf recto that reads: "2.50".


Publication

The manuscript was reproduced in black and white photo-facsimile in JJA 39.207–277.


Notes

Mme FranceRaphael, Joyce’s amanuensis, did not transcribe this notebook.