MARKSON, David. Wittgenstein's Mistress. London: Jonathan Cape. 1989. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s mauve cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Steven Woollard. A very good example overall, the cloth clean and bright, one faint mark to front panel upper. The binding tight and square, with some light stains and spots to the textblock edges. The contents with some light stains to the endpapers and prelims, then clean throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (£11.95 net), very gently bumped to corners and spine tips, with some spots to the flaps. A nice example overall.
The author’s magnum opus, an immediate study of depression and loneliness told through a single narrative; a woman who may or may not be the last person on Earth. It was rejected by 54 publishers before Dalkey Archive took the gamble, and this Cape British edition followed a year later. David Foster Wallace praised the work and later wrote an afterword. In it, he describes the novel’s slippery philosophy, “though its prose and monotone are hauntingly pedestrian, the novel’s diffracted system of allusions to everything from antiquity to Astroturf are a bitch to trace out”. A quiet classic and a favourite of this bookseller. Uncommon.
MARKSON, David. Wittgenstein's Mistress. London: Jonathan Cape. 1989. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s mauve cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Steven Woollard. A very good example overall, the cloth clean and bright, one faint mark to front panel upper. The binding tight and square, with some light stains and spots to the textblock edges. The contents with some light stains to the endpapers and prelims, then clean throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (£11.95 net), very gently bumped to corners and spine tips, with some spots to the flaps. A nice example overall.
The author’s magnum opus, an immediate study of depression and loneliness told through a single narrative; a woman who may or may not be the last person on Earth. It was rejected by 54 publishers before Dalkey Archive took the gamble, and this Cape British edition followed a year later. David Foster Wallace praised the work and later wrote an afterword. In it, he describes the novel’s slippery philosophy, “though its prose and monotone are hauntingly pedestrian, the novel’s diffracted system of allusions to everything from antiquity to Astroturf are a bitch to trace out”. A quiet classic and a favourite of this bookseller. Uncommon.
