Wittgenstein’s Mistress

Elmwood Park: Dalkey Archive Press, (1988). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 248 pp. Original black paper-covered boards, stamped in gold, in original unclipped ($20.00) dust-jacket. About as-new. Light edge wear with some handling and rubbing wear to gloss. Mild general toning to edges. Protected in archival mylar. Book is tight, square and firm. Light wear to edges and corners. Light curling to spine ends. Some light droplets to front panel, else fine. Interior is clean and unmarked.

Dust Jacket: Fine

Hardcover: Near Fine

“The novel is mainly a series of statements made in the first person; the protagonist is a woman named Kate who believes herself to be the last human on earth. Though her statements shift quickly from topic to topic, the topics often recur, and often refer to Western cultural icons, ranging from Zeno to Beethoven to Willem de Kooning. Readers familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus will recognize stylistic similarities to that work. Though Markson's original manuscript was rejected fifty-four times, the book, when finally published in 1988 by Dalkey Archive Press, was met with critical acclaim. In particular, the New York Times Book Review praised it for "address[ing] formidable philosophic questions with tremendous wit." A decade later, David Foster Wallace described it as "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country".