Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's the Recognitions

by Steven Moore

William Gaddis, contemporary literature, analysis Gaddis, The Recognitions

Genres: Fiction, Criticism

337 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Steven Moore is a literary critic. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1988.

While Moore has been a teacher, bookstore owner, book reviewer, and columnist, he is most well known for his work as an editor and author of literary criticism. Moore is the foremost authority on William Gaddis, having written a book on this author, supervised the collection of several critical essays, and assisted in the translation of Gaddis' work into Chinese.

The wikipedia entry.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Free on-line because that's just the kind of guy Steven Moore is ::
http://www.williamgaddis.org/recognit...

Note also the two editions :
First Edition © 1982 by the University of Nebraska Press
Revised Edition © 1995 by Steven Moore

The on-line version represents a continuing project, cooperative, to which Friend Eric has been contributing.

The entire site is awesome ::
http://www.williamgaddis.org/index.shtml

I notice that the Gaddis News link is dead. Here it is (but scarcely much updated) ::
http://www.williamgaddis.org/current&...

Here's another Freebie from Mr Moore, his William Gaddis (1989, oop) ::
http://www.williamgaddis.org/mooregad...
I'm going to start a rumor to the effect of :: now that Moore has published his Gaddis Letters, we'll get an update of this volume. Please? [update ;; revised/expanded edition slated for 2015]

[George]

Not as essential as, say, the Gifford guide is to Ulysses, but still a great work of scholarship that illuminates just about every crook and granny in this bloated book of blather known as The Recognitions.

[Chris Via]

You will want to use the updated annotations, which are online for free:
https://www.williamgaddis.org/recogni...

I own this book as a collector’s item.
Moore is THE Gaddis authority.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

і як люди в 1955-му році читали Ґеддіса без цією книжки? правильно! не читали, а точніше - недочитували. багато корисних підказок щодо цитат і реалій, однак чимало загально відомого
+кумедне виправдання Стівена Мура на сайті, що він тут виправив помилку Ґеддіса в одній французькій фразі, і той змінив її в подальших виданнях, а виявилося, що таки помилився Мур+весело читати, як критики знаходили у письменника якісь алюзії, а він потім коментував, що нічого подібного не мав на увазі. отака вона невдячна праця в коментаторів.

[Seth Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as indispensable a companion as say, Weisenberger's to Gravity's Rainbow or Carlisle's to Infinite Jest, Moore's reader's guide to The R proved to be a virtuosic examination of a fictional work. The depth to which he mined the text for allusion, as well as historical and esoteric references was borderline obsessive (I say that as a compliment). While it often lacked in its ability to orient the reader within the main text, it did elevate the experience of interpreting the many, many breadcrumbs Gaddis scattered throughout the story.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven Moore is doing the Lord's work.

[Matthew Blais]

Didn’t plan on reading this at first but every time I googled something from R I was led back to (the online version of) it. Insane the amount of references in Gaddis’ brick. So much so that, every 3-4 pages of R meant a good 5-10 min chunk of reading this to keep up. It actually felt like it was derailing my momentum, not to mention how I’d always just want to get back to R. So I abandoned reading the two concurrently, and read each as I pleased (hence finishing this days after the other) which does work because this is an interesting book on its own, like an idiosyncratic history lesson. I didn’t feel this “unlocked” anything about Gaddis’ work (as in, understanding the references is some skeleton key that reveals the Real Meaning or something), but it definitely deepened my respect of it, and Gaddis’ erudition. There are for sure some references that are essential, but it’s more just knowing they ARE references and what that means that is paramount to the big themes of R. Thankful this guide didn’t offer much in way of interpretation, outside of chapter summaries, which is the kind of guide I like - remain objective about any ambiguities, don’t assume/interpret the material, leave that for the reader. Liked my experience with this more than the Joyce guide I read, which was essential for following the plot but I found it too often interpreting meaning. My one main gripe with Moore’s guide is his need to reference future events in his summaries. Obviously if you read the summary at the start of section where it’s placed you’ll read spoilers, but you can always read the summary after you’ve read the corresponding chapter in R - my problem is even when you do that, Moore will reference things that take place hundreds of pages later, something akin to “X goes to do Z (but as we’ll see, 500 pages later he will fail and die)”. Don’t really see why that’s needed to keep the summary intact, as I assume most readers are first time readers. I don’t really care about or “believe in” spoilers (as in, it’s not like what makes the recognitions what it is can be “spoiled”), but I’d always prefer to not have anything be spoiled when faced with either prospect - that first time experience is just that, a one-time thing, the pleasure of the plot on a superficial level is something that, while superficial, you only get once. Would have preferred for all discoveries to have been made organically, on my own.

[Tink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most helpful.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 5 out of 5]

the edition i read today wasn't quite 300-odd pages although it was excellent. not so much a fan of post-recognitions gaddis, maybe at another point in time, but between this and Fire the Bastards there lies a brilliant scope of one of my all-time favorite novels. glad to hear dalkey archive has recently reissued the recognitions, and that finally a gaddis biography/selected letters is on the way between now and 2013.

http://www.williamgaddis.org for the free text

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

читал, конечно, по диагонали и как справочный материал. полезная книжка. к счастью, вся есть в сети

[Rene Bard · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this helpful book 6 stars, I would. Like Joyce's Ulysses, the obscure literary, cultural, and historical references in The Recognitions - as enriching as they are on their own terms - deserve elucidation for those of us who are not blessed with encyclopedic knowledge.