Recognitions

Gaddis`s brilliantly experimental first novel, undervalued when it was published in 1974, is generally considered a masterwork of American literature. The 1000-page story is about Wyatt Gwyon, an artist from an old New England family, who devotes his life to obsessively copying the great Flemish Old Masters, seeking not merely to copy but to reproduce the conditions--physical, psychological, spiritual--under which they worked. Gwyon`s skill earns him the attention of unscrupulous forgers. The recognitions Gaddis has in mind are the recognition of reality, of true art, of one`s real self, and of love; his title is taken from an anonymous third-century treatise on the search for salvation, RECOGNITIONS OF CLEMENT, and he claimed in a notebook that his novel was originally quite explicitly a parody on the Faust story. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.