“LOUD, HEAP MISERIES UPON US YET ENTWINE OUR ARTS WITH LAUGHTER’S LOW”

JOYCE, James. The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies. A Fragment from Work in Progress. The Hague and New York: The Servire Press and Gotham Book Mart, 1934. Octavo, original printed cream paper wrappers, uncut and unopened, original glassine, original cardboard slipcase. $2200.

First edition of this amusing and affecting portion of Finnegans Wake, number 596 of only 1000 copies printed on Old Antique Dutch paper, uncut and unopened.

"Slapstick raised to the status of art" (G.W. Stonier). A fragment of the work that would become Finnegans Wake, The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies was "revised [from] the version originally published in transition [in 1933, which] has only recently been completed by the author." "Joyce alternately described the episode as dealing with 'twilight games' and 'the children's games.' For most readers, however, this is not adequate to describe the chapter's depiction of the continuing human effort to exchange doubt for certainty" (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 149). With an initial letter and tail-piece in seven colors and a cover in three colors, all specially designed by Lucia Joyce, the author's daughter. The thousand copies of the trade edition were issued under four imprints with various slipcases. There were also 29 copies of this edition signed by Lucia and James Joyce. Slocum and Cahoon 43.

Slipcase joints repaired, slight soiling and chipping to glassine, book very nearly fine with only slight toning to extremities. A handsome copy.