- Hardcover
- Publisher: Harcourt (June 1955)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0151759715
- ISBN-13: 978-0151759712
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 15.2 x 5.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Even Camilla had enjoyed masquerades, of the safe sort where the mask may be dropped at that critical moment it presumes itself as reality. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Even Camilla had enjoyed masquerades, of the safe sort where the mask may be dropped at that critical moment it presumes itself as reality. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epiphanies on Every Page,
By Wordsworth (Greenwich, CT) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Recognitions (Mass Market Paperback)
In a habit I sustained in college I make it a practice to underline the most quotable lines of novels I read: The Recognitions has underlines on every page. Gaddis is a major literary talent who hasn't yet even begun to receive the following of which he is worthy. This novel concerns the discoveries, both major and minor, of what is authentic in life: The Recognitions is enlightening, almost beatific, in the way in which it focuses upon the shortcomings and moral lapses of humans in pursuit of true art. From the starving painter whose unappreciated genius leads him to forge Flemish masters to a musician whose copied work played upon a great pipe organ brings down a chapel to counterfeitors of money and plagiarists of drama, this of work of Gaddis is the real thing. It is brilliant, witty, original and his command of the language is breathtakingly stunning in its execution. One can see the influence of James Joyce throughout the writing in an experimental style that is breakthrough. It is incredibly inventive and funny and astonishingly intelligent. It's no wonder that The Recognitions went unrecognized for so tragically long -- Gaddis is, without doubt, one of the top half-dozen of American literary novelists of the 20th century ranking with Bellow, Barth, Vonnegut, Hemingway and Faulkner. The writing is work by a fellow of verifiable genius: I strongly recommend that you to discover Gaddis -- he will enrich your life and help you better understand the nature of the personal epiphanies that give meaning to life.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Our lives as forgeries,
By Robert Britcher (Gaithersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Recognitions (Mass Market Paperback)
I read Gaddis's masterpiece about 5 years ago. Like any formidable task, I had to persist to finish it. But The Recognitions has influenced me as much as the Holy Bible.The book is difficult. It entwines a variety of themes, characters, and vignettes. But the pervasive theme is forgery. With great entertainment, Gaddis suggests that most lives are forgeries, as are most works of art and texts -- in one sense or another. Recognitions, whereby one tastes a sense of something real, occur rarely in a lifetime , if at all. (For me, reading this book was a recognition.) Gaddis's favorite and most resonant metaphor is the church, in particular the Roman Catholic church. Many of his characters are named for the saints, who, along with bishops of all sects, wore and wear gowns, while hiding a thousand yards of material up their sleeves. No only do their gowns, or robes (feminine by custom) deceive us politically,socially, and economically -- not to mention religiously, they are sexually alluring, suggesting easy entre' both homosexually and heterosexually. The former is better disguised in the book -- as befits its theme, but it makes the greater imprint (especially since homosexuality is still proscribed by the Church as unnatural and spiritually and physically injurious)... Gaddis is after more than our personal forgeries and those of our art, he is out to "expose" the most sacred of our cows: our beliefs and our faith.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not the American Ulysses, as it deserves its own category,
By
This review is from: 20th Century Recognitions (Mass Market Paperback)
This is certainly the best work of fiction I have ever read, and I am somewhat well versed in the classics of modernism. Allow me to point out a few of the achievements, although they number in the infinite, as well as a few of its appeals.-Gaddis (he would hate my discussion of the book as 'his' work) manages to appeal to the atheist, theist, and agnostic all at once -He will enrich/endow one with a greater appreciation of fine art, especially that of late medieveal Dutch/German nature -If you are a fan of classical music, if i may be so vague, this book shall certainly strike a chord -it is surprisingly quick reading -the continuous dialogue is not difficult -the book is not nearly as difficult as Ulysses, although it is equally rich in allusions -Gaddis manages to weave and use allusions in a very enriching way; yet, at the same time he does not form a text the enjoyment or apprehension of which depends upon one's grasp of the allusions. -this book is at least a masterpiece, and gets better with the quality of one's education -somehow Gaddis is both light and deep at the same time, both modern and classical -will this book make you insane? Kind of ... but in a very 'good' way ... as in Platonic Good, that is -Gaddis shows how one might live authentically by treading between pop culture, philistinism, and treachery -If you have a rich background / interest in the history of religions, especially western religions and their heretical/cultic forms, this book will be your favorite. -This is certainly the most mythic book I have ever read; yet, Gaddis manages mythic proportions without being cheesy. The book is borderline a myth itself -One's appreciation of religious texts will certainly increase, as one comes to a more familiar grasp of what the great mythical/religious texts we have been handed down once meant, prior to their popularization to the point of platitudes -After completing this text, it seems difficult to imagine much point in reading other works of fiction -Agape Agape is another tremendous work that explores the way to live -In a sense, Gaddis's ethics or answer to the question, how should i live, is similar to that of Spinoza's. Is it any coincidence that Spinoza's text appears in the events of this book -this text is not for those seeking television in print; then again, if you know enough to look at this text on amazon, chances are, you already are an 'initiate' ... right don? -I dedicate this review to Alina; few persons could persevere their significant other's engagement with this text.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
