Preface
Abbreviated Sources
and References
Annotations: title,
epigraph and
dedication
Part I
Part II
II.1 Synopsis
pp. 281-306
pp. 311-342
II.2 Synopsis
pp.
343-373
pp. 374-381
pp.
382-385
pp. 386-389
II.3 Synopsis
pp. 390-392
pp. 393-403
pp. 404-420
pp. 421-442
II.4 Synopsis
pp. 446-468
pp. 470-486
II.5 Synopsis
pp. 487-495
pp. 496-511
pp. 512-540
II.6 Synopsis
pp. 542-564
II.7 Synopsis
pp. 568-605
pp. 606-645
II.8 Synopsis
pp. 647-678
pp. 679-699
II.9 Synopsis
pp. 700-719
Part III
II.4 Synopsis
Pages 446-86; Thursday or Friday, 22 or 23 December 1949.
On what could be the next day or perhaps the same day that Wyatt visits his father (the time scheme becomes muddled at this point - see my "Chronological Difficulties in the Novels of William Gaddis"), Otto finds Esme having breakfast at a drugstore with a pornographer whose departure coincides with the arrival of Stanley and Max. After paying for all five breakfasts, Otto takes Esme out for a walk toward Washington Square and, failing to elicit any kind of commitment from her, proposes marriage. Esme doesn't take his proposal seriously and leaves him. Otto soon runs into Max and Stanley again, as well as Anselm, who is baby-sitting Don Bildow's daughter.
Esme has gone to Wyatt's Horatio Street lodgings, where he appears to be sleeping (though he may not, in fact, be there). Wandering around his room, talking to herself, kicking the griffin's egg Wyatt brought back, she finally dons Camilla's earrings, makes herself up garishly with Wyatt's paint, and writes him a long letter. Assuming she does not exist for him except as a painting, she concludes her letter: "The only way to circumvent painting is by absolute death" (473) and goes home to attempt suicide.
The next day, Otto leaves a bar to go to the Viareggio, where he learns of Esme's attempted suicide. Vainly assuming he drove her to it, he rushes to her place to forgive and console her and finds Chaby (who rescued her) there as well. Esme has lapsed back into schizophrenia and thereafter refers to herself in the third person. Otto learns she has been modeling for Wyatt, and after reaffirming his need for her (and his loathing for Chaby), he goes off to keep the rendezvous with his father.
The Recognitions || J R || Carpenter's Gothic || A Frolic of his Own || Agapē Agape