By David Markson
ISBN: 9781628973914
Publication Date: 7/11/23
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel unlike anything David Markson or anyone else has ever written. It is the story of a woman who is convinced and, astonishingly, will ultimately convince the reader, that she is the only person left on earth.
Presumably, she is mad. And yet so appealing is her character, and so witty and seductive her narrative voice, that we will follow her hypnotically as she unloads the intellectual baggage of a lifetime in a series of irreverent meditations on everything and everybody from Brahms to sex to Heidegger to Helen of Troy. And as she contemplates aspects of the troubled past that have brought her to her present state—obviously, a metaphor for ultimate loneliness—so too will her drama become one of the few certifiably original fictions of our time.
Other Books by David Markson
Reviews
“A work of genius . . . an erudite, breathtakingly cerebral novel whose prose is crystal and whose voice rivets and whose conclusion defies you not to cry.” —David Foster Wallace
"The novel I liked best this year ... one dizzying, delightful, funny passage after another . . . Wittgenstein’s Mistress gives proof positive that the experimental novel can produce high, pure works of imagination." —Colin Walters, Washington Times
“Brilliant and often hilarious . . . Markson is one working novelist I can think of who can claim affinities with Joyce, Gaddis, and Lowry, no less than with Beckett.” —San Francisco Review of Books
“Addresses formidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit . . . remarkable . . . a novel that can be parsed like a sentence; it is that well made.” —New York Times Book Review
“Beautifully conceived. An irresistible, captivating book!” —Walter Abish
“Beautifully realized. Initially as hypnotically calming as an afternoon snowfall, then, by stages as menacing and yet thrilling as a nocturnal blizzard. This is Markson in the post-Beckett Gaddis country, staking his own claim, in a territory nobody else has the courage or the strength to inhabit and survive in.” —James McCourt
“Provocative, learned, wacko, brilliant, and extravagantly comic. This is a nonesuch novel, a formidable work of art by a writer who kicks tradition out the window, then kicks the window out the window, letting a splendid new light into the room.” —William Kennedy
Biographical Information
David Markson (1927-2010) was one of the most original post-modern US novelists. Born in Albany, New York, he lived in New York City until his death. He was the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Salon Book Award.