Wake Rites

"A major new treatment of the ancient Irish rituals accompanying the crowning and powers of the High Kings of Ireland at Tara. This rich book supplements our knowledge of Joyce's readings in ancient Irish history and legend, which had been one of the least developed areas in Joyce criticism. This book is indispensable to any reader of the Wake."—Edmund L. Epstein

"Thanks to George Cinclair Gibson's brilliant work of scholarship and spiritual intuition on the festival of Tara—the Teamhur Feis—and its central relationship to the architecture of Finnegans Wake, we can see how James Joyce worked to undo the damage done by St. Patrick and gave us a spirituality in which a more open and cosmic life is affirmed."—William Irwin Thompson

"An admirably learned and lucid presentation of a whole lot of new and important material about Irish mythology in Finnegans Wake. A powerful argument for reading much if not all of Finnegans Wake in light of the ancient ceremony of the Teamhur Feis, a ritual with which Wake students have been largely unfamiliar, and which they will need to keep in mind, starting with this book, from now on.”—John Gordon

“The brilliance of this book lies in its revelation of an underlying structure to Finnegans Wake that is synchronous with the insights other scholars have generated, but that has heretofore gone under-appreciated and under-emphasized.”—South Atlantic Review

“This study, a significant addition to the wealth of standard works on the Wake, gives Joyceans plenty to think about. It places Joyce’s last novel . . . firmly within the context of Irish culture and history.”—Modern Philology

“Gibson’s book shows precisely how a richer understanding of the Teamhur Feis must now be included in any serious discussion or summary of Finnegans Wake.”—English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920