William Gaddis: Expanded Edition

In 1989, Steven Moore published the first scholarly study of all three of William Gaddis's novels and since then it has been generally regarded as the best book on this difficult but major writer's work. This revised and expanded edition includes new chapters on the novels Gaddis published after 1989, the National Book Award-winning A Frolic of His Own and the posthumous novella Agape Agape, along with updated introductory and concluding chapters. This introduction offers a clear discussion of all five of Gaddis's novels, providing essential biographical information, two chapters each on his most significant novels, The Recognitions and J R, and a chapter each devoted to his later three novels. A concluding chapter locates his place in American literature and notes his influence on younger writers. Each chapter focuses on the main themes of each novel and discusses the literary techniques Gaddis deployed to dramatize those themes. Since Gaddis is an erudite, allusive novelist, Moore clarifies his references and explains how they enhance his themes.

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Expanded Edition Preface to the 1989 Edition 1. A Vision of Order 2. The Recognitions: Magic, Myth, and Metaphor 3. The Recognitions: The Self Who Can Do More 4. J R: What America Is All About 5. J R: Empedocles on Valhalla 6. Carpenter's Gothic; or, The Ambiguities 7. A Frolic of His Own: Ideas of Order 8. Agape Agape: The Self Who Cannot Do More Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Steven Moore (PhD Rutgers, 1988) is the author of several books and essays on modern literature, including A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions (1982), as well as the author of The Novel, An Alternative History (2 vols, 2010, 2013). From 1988 to 1996 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Contemporary Fiction/Dalkey Archive Press, and for decades has reviewed books for a variety of periodicals, primarily the Washington Post. He is the co-editor of In Recognition of William Gaddis (1984) and the editor of The Letters of William Gaddis (2013).

Review :
In 1982, Steven Moore invented Gaddis Studies when he published his comprehensive Reader's Guide to The Recognitions. Thirty years, and three books later, he's returned to his landmark 1989 monograph on Gaddis's work, bringing it up-to-date with new chapters on Gaddis's late work. This is the definitive study of both how Gaddis's novels work and why they matter. In each authoritative chapter Moore maps their large intellectual investments and intricate architecture, in lucid and well-informed readings that underline the fact that Moore has a deeper insight into this important body of fiction than anyone else. Steven Moore is one of our most important Gaddis scholars and, with the recent revival of interest in William Gaddis's powerful literary legacy, this revised guidebook will become an invaluable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, scholars starting work on Gaddis, and lay readers who might be interested in learning more about his art. Where would Gaddis studies be without Steven Moore? His indispensable guide, for many years the only monographic introduction to Gaddis's fiction, is back again in a new, expanded and updated edition, and more indispensable than ever. Moore unravels the often tortuous situations and storylines of the novels, highlighting their satire and comedy, which can sometimes elude readers. These are not solemn books, but 'frolics,' and Moore is not a solemn explicator but a knowledgeable enthusiast–the ideal traveling companion for any voyager in Gaddisland. There are a handful of William Gaddis specialists in the world. One of them, Stephen Burn (also a respected David Foster Wallace critic), in a quotation on the back of the expanded edition of Moore's critical study of Gaddis' works-suitably updated and released in February of this year, a handful of months ahead of Tabbi's biography-states that its author 'invented Gaddis Studies when he published his comprehensive guide to The Recognitions' (in 1982; now available online). Anyone writing after that, and after his original Twayne edition of William Gaddis (1989), owes much to Moore's analysis.