or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
33 used & new from $7.38

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library)
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library) (Paperback)

~ Marcel Benabou (Author), David Kornacker (Translator), Warren F. Motte (Preface)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Price: $13.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Wednesday, November 11? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
17 new from $13.14 16 used from $7.38

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover $45.00 $32.67 $2.83
  Paperback $13.95 $13.14 $7.38

Frequently Bought Together

Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library) + Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature + Exercises in Style
Price For All Three: $36.72

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library) by Marcel Benabou

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature by Warren F. Motte Jr.

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Exercises in Style

Exercises in Style

by Raymond Queneau
4.6 out of 5 stars (23)  $9.20
Oulipo Compendium

Oulipo Compendium

by Harry Matthews
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)  $39.90
How I Wrote Certain Of My Books

How I Wrote Certain Of My Books

by Raymond Roussel
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  $10.85
The Loop (French Literature)

The Loop (French Literature)

by Jacques Roubaud
$12.71
The Rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn

by W.G. Sebald
4.6 out of 5 stars (43)  $10.17
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Of course Benabou has written his books, 10 of them aside from this one. But this is the kind of playful treatment of constraints, certainty and language that one might expect of a longstanding member (and Provisional Definitive Secretary) of OuLiPo (Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle). Benabou details the anguished writing process and describes what The Book, if it could be written, would be like. "There would commence a long sentence in the conditional," he says at the beginning of a long sentence in the conditional, that ends after the promised twists and turns in "a clausula that concludes nothing." In very few pages, Benabou, addresses conflicting impulses between writing and reading, writing and living, following great models and being original. And he has a great deal of gentle self-deprecating fun while doing it. But this isn't just about the wordplay beloved of French modernists. At base it is a lovely book about the love of books and of language and all that goes into making them, be it paper or words. "Most of the words I used were already almost entirely detached from their natural ties to things, and for this reason I found them intoxicatingly light. The ones I loved the most (bergamot, nacelle, botargo, galoubet, caillebotis) were attached to nothing I had before my eyes. They were beautiful, shimmering, iridescent bubbles, and their emptiness made them all the more precious to me."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Library Journal

A professor of ancient history at the University of Paris VII and the author of numerous works, Benabou reflects deeply and with sharp humor on the elusive nature of writing and writer's block in this work, originally published in France in 1986. Benabou's problem with writing comes from the way he defines "writing." He thinks of his predicament as applicable to quite a few people and makes no excuses for them; instead, he gives diverse critical reasons why he has not written any of the books he had conceived. Whenever he compares his writings to classical and contemporary authors, for example, he discovers only his own shortcomings despite his arduous efforts. But this book he did indeed write. Recommended for comprehensive public and academic collections.
Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 111 pages
  • Publisher: Bison Books (March 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 080326139X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0803261396
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #665,852 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Marcel Bénabou
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Marcel Bénabou Page

Look Inside This Book

Citations (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library)
55% buy the item featured on this page:
Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (French Modernist Library) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
$13.95
Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature
20% buy
Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
$13.57
Exercises in Style
11% buy
Exercises in Style 4.6 out of 5 stars (23)
$9.20
How I Wrote Certain Of My Books
7% buy
How I Wrote Certain Of My Books 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
$10.85

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Arch and poignant metafiction (some will find insufferable), October 22, 2001
By Stephen O. Murray "Stephen O. Murray" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This somewhat autobiographical sort of a novel, first published in French in 1986, won the Black Humor Prize. The most interesting part is a sketch of the author's background--as a child of a Sephardic Jewish family that had been in Morocco for four centuries. He assumed he was destined for greatness (as a writer) and sees this as a sort of ontogeny for the phylogeny of the Chosen People. Both as a 20th-century Jew and as someone who (like Camus) feels lost the paradise of living under the North African sun (living in the dingy, gray Paris of the 1950s), he believes he has a duty to remember.

The book about his nonbooks (the books he didn't write) starts over and starts over and starts over, but, aided by some very apposite quotations about writing from myriad other writers, details the ultimately impossible love of an author who can not bring himself to besmirch beautiful virgin sheets of white paper even to create the literature that would redeem his claim to be a writer.

Many people have realized that being unsuited for writing and even unable to string more than a few words together does not remove the desire to be a writer. Without venturing beyond the struggle with writing ) B?nabou makes being a writer who does not and cannot write archly funny and even poignant.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.