Gardner's first two published novels, The Resurrection (1966) and The Wreckage of Agathon (1970) generated little response, although Geoffrey Wolff did praise the latter in Newsweek. with Grendel (1971), however, as David Cowart noted in Arches and Light, "the critical tide of caution began to turn. Reviewers were charmed, and Time and Newsweek cited it among the year's best novels. After a first printing of 7500 copies, It went through nine hardback and thirteen paperback printings in this country and England by the end of 1977. It had also, by then, been translated into French, Spanish, and Swedish." No doubt some of this attention was due to readers' familiarity with Grendel's literary source, the classic epic poem Beowulf, known especially to high school and college English students and their professors. Academics in particular respected the author,.....
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