The Recognitions
Encyclopedia
The Recognitions, published in 1955, is American author William Gaddis
's first novel. The novel was poorly received initially, but Gaddis's reputation grew, twenty years later, with the publication of his second novel J R
(which won a National Book Award
), and The Recognitions received belated fame as a masterpiece of American literature.
Time Magazine included The Recognitions in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
. He initially plans to follow his father into the ministry, however, he is inspired to become a painter by The Seven Deadly Sins
, Bosch's painting in his father's possession. He leaves and travels to Europe to study painting. Discouraged by a corrupt critic and frustrated with his career he moves to New York. He meets Recktall Brown, a capitalistic collector and dealer of art, who makes a Faust
ian deal with him. Wyatt creates paintings in the style of Flemish and Dutch masters
(such as Hieronymous Bosch, Hugo van der Goes
, and Hans Memling
), forges their signature, and Brown will sell them as newly discovered antique originals. Soon Wyatt is discouraged, goes home only to find his father converted to Mithraism
and losing his mind. Back in New York, he tries to expose his forgeries, then travels to Spain where he visits the monastery where his mother was buried, restores old paintings, and tries to find himself in his search for authenticity. At the end, he moves on to live his life "deliberately".
Interwoven are the stories of many other characters, among them Otto, a struggling writer, Esme, a muse, and Stanley, a musician. The epilogue follows their stories further. In the final scene Stanley achieves his goal by playing his work at the organ of the church of Fenestrula "pulling all the stops". The church collapses, killing him, yet "most of his work was recovered ..., and is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard,though seldom played."
The major part of the novel takes part in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
. During the period in which Gaddis was writing the novel, he travelled to Mexico, Central America and Europe. It was in Spain in 1948 that Gaddis read James Frazer
’s The Golden Bough
. Gaddis found the title for the novel in The Golden Bough as Frazer noted how Goethe’s Faust originally came from the Clementine Recognitions, a third-century theological tract (See Clementine literature
). It was from this point on that Gaddis began to expand the novel. The novel was completed in 1949.
stated that it was "by a comfortable margin, the most difficult book I ever voluntarily read..." With its three parts it is organized like a triptych
, each part contains many larger and smaller scenes, all interconnected. The themes of forgery, falsification, plagiarism, and mistaken identity abound. There is extensive use of dialogues -- Gaddis, like James Joyce
, uses an em-dash
to mark the beginning of speech, not standard quotation marks -- and the reader may have to deduce who is talking by the speaking style, other behaviour or attributes of the speaker, or the context. Some characters change their name in the course of the novel; thus, Wyatt Gwyon is called so in the beginning of the novel, then loses his name, only to be given -- fraudulently -- at the end the name of Stephen Asche, a Swiss national. Gaddis is a master of cumulative syntax
, enriching his sentences by literary, cultural and religious allusions.
and Otto has been described as a self-deprecating portrait of the author. "Dick," a minister, is a reference to Richard Nixon
.
critiquing those critics: "Two of 55 reviews were adequate, the others were amateurish and incompetent, failing to recognize the greatness of the book, failing to convey to the reader what the book is like, what its essential qualities are, counterfeiting this with stereotyped preconceptions — the standard cliches about a book that is "ambitious," "erudite", "long," "negative," etc., counterfeiting competence with inhuman jargon." Presciently, Gaddis had already taken critics to task in his book, thus one of them responds when asked if he is reading a book that has the size, price, and appearance of The Recognitions: " No. I'm just reviewing it... A lousy twenty-five bucks. It'll take me the whole evening tonight. You didn't buy it, did you? Christ, at that price? Who the hell do they think's going to pay that much just for a novel. Christ, I could have given it to you, all I need is the jacket blurb to write the review." Green showed that the blurb made it into the reviews, indeed.
Over time, the work received not popularity, but gradual recognition. David Madden
observed that "(a)n underground reputation has kept it on the brink of oblivion." Tony Tanner claimed that it inaugurated a new period in American fiction, adumbrating and sometimes directly influencing the work of later ambitious novelists such as Joseph McElroy
, Thomas Pynchon
, Don DeLillo
, and David Foster Wallace
. Franzen, who compared it to a "huge landscape painting of modern New York, peopled with hundreds of doomed but energetic little figures, executed on wood panels by Brueghel or Bosch...," believes that the disappointing reception negatively affected Gaddis's future development as a novelist. Gaddis did not publish another novel for twenty years. Cynthia Ozick
wrote that " The Recognitions is always spoken of as the most overlooked important work of the last several literary generations... Through the famous obscurity of The Recognitions, Mr. Gaddis has become famous for not being famous enough."
William Gaddis
William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. was an American novelist. He wrote five novels, two of which won National Book Awards and one of which, The Recognitions , was chosen as one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005...
's first novel. The novel was poorly received initially, but Gaddis's reputation grew, twenty years later, with the publication of his second novel J R
J R
J R is a novel by William Gaddis. Published in 1975 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., J R was Gaddis's second novel and received the National Book Award in 1976....
(which won a National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
), and The Recognitions received belated fame as a masterpiece of American literature.
Time Magazine included The Recognitions in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
Plot summary
The story loosely follows the life of Wyatt Gwyon, a Calvinist minister's son from rural New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. He initially plans to follow his father into the ministry, however, he is inspired to become a painter by The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things
The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things is a painting attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, completed around 1500 or later. The painting is oil on wood panels...
, Bosch's painting in his father's possession. He leaves and travels to Europe to study painting. Discouraged by a corrupt critic and frustrated with his career he moves to New York. He meets Recktall Brown, a capitalistic collector and dealer of art, who makes a Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
ian deal with him. Wyatt creates paintings in the style of Flemish and Dutch masters
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
(such as Hieronymous Bosch, Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.-Biography:...
, and Hans Memling
Hans Memling
Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
), forges their signature, and Brown will sell them as newly discovered antique originals. Soon Wyatt is discouraged, goes home only to find his father converted to Mithraism
Mithraism
The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra, adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery...
and losing his mind. Back in New York, he tries to expose his forgeries, then travels to Spain where he visits the monastery where his mother was buried, restores old paintings, and tries to find himself in his search for authenticity. At the end, he moves on to live his life "deliberately".
Interwoven are the stories of many other characters, among them Otto, a struggling writer, Esme, a muse, and Stanley, a musician. The epilogue follows their stories further. In the final scene Stanley achieves his goal by playing his work at the organ of the church of Fenestrula "pulling all the stops". The church collapses, killing him, yet "most of his work was recovered ..., and is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard,though seldom played."
The major part of the novel takes part in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Background
Gaddis spent seven years writing The Recognitions. The novel began as a much shorter work and as an explicit parody of Goethe’s FaustFaust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
. During the period in which Gaddis was writing the novel, he travelled to Mexico, Central America and Europe. It was in Spain in 1948 that Gaddis read James Frazer
James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer , was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion...
’s The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...
. Gaddis found the title for the novel in The Golden Bough as Frazer noted how Goethe’s Faust originally came from the Clementine Recognitions, a third-century theological tract (See Clementine literature
Clementine literature
Clementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses...
). It was from this point on that Gaddis began to expand the novel. The novel was completed in 1949.
Style
The complex book, full of characters whose ways intertwine, presents and is meant to be a challenging read; Gaddis said later "I do ask something of the reader and many reviewers say I ask too much . . . and as I say, it’s not reader-friendly. Though I think it is, and I think the reader gets satisfaction out of participating in, collaborating, if you will, with the writer, so that it ends up being between the reader and the page. . . . Why did we invent the printing press? Why do we, why are we literate? Because of the pleasure of being all alone, with a book, is one of the greatest pleasures." Jonathan FranzenJonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His third novel, The Corrections , a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction...
stated that it was "by a comfortable margin, the most difficult book I ever voluntarily read..." With its three parts it is organized like a triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
, each part contains many larger and smaller scenes, all interconnected. The themes of forgery, falsification, plagiarism, and mistaken identity abound. There is extensive use of dialogues -- Gaddis, like James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, uses an em-dash
Dash
A dash is one of several kinds of punctuation mark. Dashes appear similar to hyphens, but differ from them primarily in length, and serve different functions. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash and the em dash .-Common dashes:...
to mark the beginning of speech, not standard quotation marks -- and the reader may have to deduce who is talking by the speaking style, other behaviour or attributes of the speaker, or the context. Some characters change their name in the course of the novel; thus, Wyatt Gwyon is called so in the beginning of the novel, then loses his name, only to be given -- fraudulently -- at the end the name of Stephen Asche, a Swiss national. Gaddis is a master of cumulative syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, enriching his sentences by literary, cultural and religious allusions.
Character inspirations
The character of Esme was inspired by Sheri MartinelliSheri Martinelli
Sheri Martinelli, was an American painter, muse and poet.-Life:Martinelli was born Shirley Burns Brennan in Philadelphia in 1918. Of Irish ancestry, she was the eldest of four children and began using the name Sherry by the time she was a teenager. Later told that her first name had the wrong...
and Otto has been described as a self-deprecating portrait of the author. "Dick," a minister, is a reference to Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
.
Reception
The book was poorly received upon publication. Years later, Jack Green (Christopher Carlisle Reid) examined the initial 55 reviews in his essay Fire the Bastards!Fire the Bastards!
Fire the Bastards! was written by Jack Green and published in his magazine newspaper in 1962. It was an acerbic critique of the book reviewing industry....
critiquing those critics: "Two of 55 reviews were adequate, the others were amateurish and incompetent, failing to recognize the greatness of the book, failing to convey to the reader what the book is like, what its essential qualities are, counterfeiting this with stereotyped preconceptions — the standard cliches about a book that is "ambitious," "erudite", "long," "negative," etc., counterfeiting competence with inhuman jargon." Presciently, Gaddis had already taken critics to task in his book, thus one of them responds when asked if he is reading a book that has the size, price, and appearance of The Recognitions: " No. I'm just reviewing it... A lousy twenty-five bucks. It'll take me the whole evening tonight. You didn't buy it, did you? Christ, at that price? Who the hell do they think's going to pay that much just for a novel. Christ, I could have given it to you, all I need is the jacket blurb to write the review." Green showed that the blurb made it into the reviews, indeed.
Over time, the work received not popularity, but gradual recognition. David Madden
David Madden
David Madden may refer to:*David Madden , American novelist*David Madden , Australian entrepreneur associated with progressive causes*David M. Madden, former mayor of Weymouth, Massachusetts*Dave Madden, Canadian actor...
observed that "(a)n underground reputation has kept it on the brink of oblivion." Tony Tanner claimed that it inaugurated a new period in American fiction, adumbrating and sometimes directly influencing the work of later ambitious novelists such as Joseph McElroy
Joseph McElroy
Joseph McElroy is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist.McElroy grew up in Brooklyn Heights, NY, a neighborhood that features prominently in much of his fiction. He received his B.A. from Williams College in 1951 and his M.A. from Columbia University in 1952...
, Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
, and David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
. Franzen, who compared it to a "huge landscape painting of modern New York, peopled with hundreds of doomed but energetic little figures, executed on wood panels by Brueghel or Bosch...," believes that the disappointing reception negatively affected Gaddis's future development as a novelist. Gaddis did not publish another novel for twenty years. Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...
wrote that " The Recognitions is always spoken of as the most overlooked important work of the last several literary generations... Through the famous obscurity of The Recognitions, Mr. Gaddis has become famous for not being famous enough."