Long before the publication of "Finnegans Wake" (1939), several parts of it were already released separately in book form - including not only the famous chapter "Anna Livia Plurabelle" (1928) but also "Tales Told of Shem and Shaun" (1929). The seed for the creation of these three stories lies in a feud between the writers James Joyce and Wyndham Lewis, who had met during their drinking sprees in Paris. Joyce responds to a fierce attack from Lewis on "Ulysses" ("a monument like a record-breaking diarrhea") and on the emerging "Finnegans Wake" ("child's play à la Gertrude Stein"). It is well known that "Finnegans Wake" does not have an 'intended' meaning, but rather a web of many fragmentary layers of meaning that complement, penetrate, and also negate each other; this is precisely the special quality of the book.