Joyce critic Lee Spinks argues that Finnegans Wake "has some claim to be the least-read major work of Western literature." Spinks, Lee. A Critical Guide to James Joyce, p.127
James Atherton states that despite the amount of critical work "explaining [the book's] profundities from various viewpoints and in varying ways [...] agreement has still not been reached on many fundamental points" Atherton 2009, p. ii; Vincent Cheng similarly argues that "through the efforts of a dedicated handful of scholars, we are approaching a grasp of the Wake. Much of Finnegans Wake, however, remains a literary outland that is still barely mapped out." Cheng 1984, p.2
