The National Library has acquired an important collection of previously unknown James Joyce manuscripts, following on the purchases of the Léon documents in 2002 and a Ulysses manuscript in 2000.
The latest documents, which consist of six sheets, date from the very first stages of the composition of Joyce's last work, Finnegans Wake, in early 1923. They have been bought from a private collector, believed to be based in France, through Sothebys at a cost of €1.17 million. The purchase was funded by the AIB Group under the Tax Credit Scheme.
Commenting on the purchase, Dr Luca Crispi of the National Library said that this was an extraordinary acquisition, which would come as a major surprise to Joyce scholars. The documents were highly significant, he added, and would give rise to much speculation and debate.
The small quantity of these manuscripts belies their importance for Joyce studies: the six sheets all deal with some of the primary "characters" and "events" with which the writing of Finnegans Wake began: the figures of the Irish princess Isolde and her Breton lover Tristan, of the Four Old Men, who are linked to the Four Masters and the Four Evangelists, and of St Kevin.
The documents have several features which distinguish them from most other Finnegans Wake manuscripts: for instance, a substantial portion is written in the hand of Nora Joyce, a very rare phenomenon in Joyce's manuscripts. The fact that Nora was involved in such an early stage in the writing of Finnegans Wake may suggest a degree of creative collaboration which was hitherto unsuspected.
Another striking aspect of these documents is the very different portrayal of the characters depicted than is to be found in the finished work. In these manuscripts, Isolde (or Issy) and the Four Old Men are far more human figures than they later become. The text is much clearer than in later developments: there are scarcely any of the verbal distortions that for most readers form the principal feature of Finnegans Wake.
Isolde is an enchanting, childlike creature, with many entertaining tricks and turns (such as cleaning the chimney by setting fire to copies of The Irish Times and sending them whooshing up the flue, or lisping a childish version of the Lord's Prayer) which do not appear in subsequent drafts or in the final Finnegans Wake. The Four Old Men, also, have elements of pathos, senility and loneliness that are only fitfully apparent in the finished work.
Another exciting aspect of this discovery is the presence of a poem by Joyce in part of the text. The surprising aspect here is that this is a different poem from one which appears in another, already known draft of closely related material.
At the very least, this new acquisition shows that Joyce's conception of the work was extremely open and fluid at this stage and that the book could have gone in a number of directions. This purchase will fuel speculation and debate as to these possible courses and recourses.
These exciting new manuscripts are now on display at the James Joyce and Ulysses at the National Library of Ireland exhibition. They will remain there until Friday, March 10th, when the exhibition closes.