James Joyce's final novel was "Finnegans Wake", to which he devoted seventeen years. This title proposes that the "Wake" has at its core an age-old philosophical question, "What makes a life worth living?", and that Joyce explores that question from the perspective of someone who feels that a long life is now ending.

Acknowledgements Awakening 1: So soft this morning, ours 2: His reignbolt's shot 3: Respectable 4: Nayman of Noland 5: Crossmess parzel 6: Life's robulous rebus 7: Three score and ten toptypsical readings 8: The hubbub caused in Edenborough 9: The unfacts, did we possess them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude 10: Everybody heard their plaint 11: Tell me more 12: Loud, heap miseries upon us 13: The tasks above are as the flasks below 14: From Liff away 15: The four of us and sure, thank God, there are no more of us 16: A picture primitive 17: Lightbreakfastbringer 18: Arise, sir ghostus! 19: Male and female, unmask we hem 20: The keys to. Given! 21: Aisy now, you decent man

"Philip Kitcher is just the person we need to rein in a virtuoso performance that threatens at every turn to spin out of control. There's no novel more in need of, and more worthy of, a philosophical perspective, and Kitcher, himself a virtuoso devotee of literature, will henceforth have provided Joyce's summa its firm foundation." --Paul Fry, Yale University "Kitcher has an important reading of Finnegans Wake to present, and his is an ideal way into the book for those who have heretofore been too timid to attempt it. But Joyce's Kaleidoscope also has much to recommend it for 'seasoned' Joyceans, who may be surprised at how much they have to learn. I've read a lot of scholarship on Finnegans Wake over the years; but Kitcher's book is the first in a very long time that has made me eager to pick up Joyce's last, monstrous novel, and try again."--Kevin J.H. Dettmar, Southern Illinois University "This book performs the remarkable feat of making the pleasures of Finnegans Wake enticing to the general reader. Philip Kitcher shows that Joyce's last masterpiece, rather than an esoteric word game, is a heartwarming portrait of the aging artist in his family, as sad and funny as the portrait of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. An irresistible invitation to Finnegans Wake, Joyce's Kaleidoscope also appeals to experienced readers by illuminating the humanity of Joyce's vision."--Maud Ellmann, University of Notre Dame "Kitcher begins Joyce's Kaleidoscope by asking the right question: not 'What does each word mean?' but 'What meaning does our experience of reading convey?' This will find an elegant and satisfactory answer if we accept this invitation to a spiraling tour of the book. The 'passkey' has been given, just 'mind your hats goan in!'"- -Jean-Michel Rabaté, Princeton University "Kitcher begins Joyce's Kaleidoscope by asking the right question: not 'What does each word mean?' but 'What meaning does our experience of reading convey?' This will find an elegant and satisfactory answer if we accept this invitation to a spiraling tour of the book. The 'passkey' has been given, just 'mind your hats goan in!'" -Jean-Michel Rabaté, Princeton University "This book performs the remarkable feat of making the pleasures of Finnegans Wake enticing to the general reader. Philip Kitcher shows that Joyce's last masterpiece, rather than an esoteric word game, is a heartwarming portrait of the aging artist in his family, as sad and funny as the portrait of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. An irresistible invitation to Finnegans Wake, Joyce's Kaleidoscope also appeals to experienced readers by illuminating the humanity of Joyce's vision."--Maud Ellmann, University of Notre Dame "Kitcher has an important reading of Finnegans Wake to present, and his is an ideal way into the book for those who have heretofore been too timid to attempt it. But Joyce's Kaleidoscope also has much to recommend it for 'seasoned' Joyceans, who may be surprised at how much they have to learn. I've read a lot of scholarship on Finnegans Wake over the years; but Kitcher's book is the first in a very long time that has made me eager to pick up Joyce's last, monstrous novel, and try again."--Kevin J.H. Dettmar, Southern Illinois University "Philip Kitcher is just the person we need to rein in a virtuoso performance that threatens at every turn to spin out of control. There's no novel more in need of, and more worthy of, a philosophical perspective, and Kitcher, himself a virtuoso devotee of literature, will henceforth have provided Joyce's summa its firm foundation." --Paul Fry, Yale University