false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170380890m/51506.jpg 51506 5 <i>Wittgenstein's Mistress</i> is a novel unlike anything David Markson -- or anyone else -- has ever written before. It is the story of a woman who is convinced -- and, astonishingly, will ultimately convince the reader as well - that she is the only person left on earth.<br><br>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 which 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.<br><br>"The novel I liked best this year," said the <i>Washington Times</i> upon the book's publication in 1988; "one dizzying, delightful, funny passage after another . . . <i>Wittgenstein's Mistress</i> gives proof positive that the experimental novel can produce high, pure works of imagination." 1278359 1989 Wittgenstein's Mistress (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) total:437|5:163|4:156|3:75|2:23|1:20| 437 1730 800 64 4 4 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Mar 05 13:07:23 -0800 2007 Mon Mar 05 13:27:17 -0800 2007
If you don't know your worth in art history, philosophical references or European history, it might be a less enjoyable reading experience, but those are the things I get off on,...more...]]> 1 8 false false Tue Oct 09 14:25:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 09 14:31:19 -0700 2007 5 7 false false Wed Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Oct 03 14:44:17 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 17 12:34:01 -0700 2009 ...more...]]> 1 3 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 13 16:45:18 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 13 22:41:32 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Apr 18 21:07:07 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 22 16:02:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 08:23:13 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 05:15:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 27 15:34:30 -0800 2007 Tue Jan 01 16:11:26 -0800 2008
The best thing about the book was the narrator's way of over explaining her sentences when they didn't need to be explained. It was the best depiction of a person going insane. I also enjoyed the one liners, such as "The things one becomes t...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Sep 05 17:11:03 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 07:31:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Dec 16 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Mon Feb 11 06:14:27 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 06:14:27 -0800 2008
I gave up on it. I understand its appeal for many, and it's probably the best example of what stream-of-consciousness would look like written down in first person by someone with an obsessive mental editor, but that as a co...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Dec 21 20:52:40 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 21:12:25 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 07 08:44:30 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 08:46:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false true Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 07:24:54 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 18:19:54 -0800 2009 1 "Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover, when I did all of that looking, or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?"

Wittgenstein's Mistress is about a woman who may or may not be the last woman on earth - who may or may not have traveled across...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Aug 02 11:51:19 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 11:58:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Dec 02 11:07:02 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 02 11:17:35 -0800 2007 3 0 false false Fri Jul 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 13:23:20 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 13:03:30 -0700 2009
Reasons why I stopped reading this book halfway through (and then skipped to the end.)

1.Interesting ideas, which is essential for me as a reader, but the language style was tedious. Even an intentio...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 11:04:56 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 11:04:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 00:09:18 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 00:20:13 -0700 2009
I too read this book after the massive amounts of praise given to it by David Foster Wallace, who when speaking about 'Jest' discussed how with a leng...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Mon Jun 25 19:05:56 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 07:31:14 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Wed Mar 18 17:20:24 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 15:50:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Feb 19 12:21:46 -0800 2009 Sun Apr 05 09:50:21 -0700 2009
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