Wittgenstein's Mistress

Synopsis

A woman believes she is the last person alive on Earth. Alone, she moves through an apparently empty world, inhabiting museums, sleeping in abandoned houses, and leaving messages in places where no one may ever find them. From this solitude comes a restless stream of observations about art, philosophy, music, literature, sex, history, and the fragments of her own past.

First published in 1988, Wittgenstein’s Mistress is David Markson’s radical and deeply affecting exploration of loneliness, memory, and consciousness. Written as a sequence of seemingly disconnected statements that gradually reveal their patterns and emotional weight, the novel moves freely from Heidegger and Helen of Troy to Brahms and everyday recollections. Formally daring, funny, erudite, and unexpectedly moving, it has become a landmark of American experimental fiction.

About the Author

David Markson was an American novelist born in Albany, New York, in 1927. He is best known for Wittgenstein’s Mistress and the experimental novels Reader’s Block, This Is Not a Novel, Vanishing Point, and The Last Novel. His later work is distinguished by its fragmented form and dense engagement with literature, philosophy, art, and cultural history. Markson lived for much of his life in New York City and died in 2010.

Publisher

Dalkey Archive Press

Publication Date

July 11, 2023

Format

Paperback

Pages

248

Subjects

Literary Fiction · Experimental Fiction · American Literature · Philosophical Fiction · Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

ISBN

9781628973914