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Gadsby Hardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLightyear Pr
- ISBN-100899684459
- ISBN-13978-0899684451
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Product details
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0899684459
- ISBN-13 : 978-0899684451
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GADSBY
There's a great old book called Gadsby
that you really have to see
The entire book was written
without a letter "E"
Written as a lipogram
a writing exercise
50,000 words
and it should have won a prize
It hardly got a mention
back in nineteen thirty nine
The author died soon after
with scarcely a history line
In our english language
letter "E" is the most used
How to write this book then
would have me quite confused
You can't use "one"or "three" or "five"
and "seven through ten" taboo
No "Mr." or "Mrs." no "the" "me" or "we"
"chapter" and "verse" eschew
The author describes how letter "E's"
as animated figures
Would climb his arm and ride his pen
the crafty little wrigglers
They'd wait for any little chance
to slip onto his page
He said he'd have to chase them off
with sudden fits of rage
When it came time for typing
the answer was quite plain
He tied the letter "E's" arm down
and there it would remain
Ernest Vincent Wright
he clearly was a master
But in his day he was ignored
it's such a great disaster
I've read the book and liked it
it really is a pleasure
From reading it alone
you wouldn't know you had a treasure
The tale is of John Gadsby
who lives in Branton Hills
He sees his town has gone to seed
and remedies these ills
He gets a youth group started
and soon the town's reviving
John becomes the Mayor
and the children all are thriving
There's many other samples
of this restrictive writing
I think this was a first
why this one's so inviting
I still have that printed-out version, but I now have this version, which is in much better condition and much more appreciated by me.
One thing needs to be pointed out, for those who insist on proofreading it (in an effort to find any errors):
You will come across the word "CRITTUR" in the book and your initial reaction might be that the author deliberately misspelled "CRITTER," to "get by" with putting in a word he wanted, but without using the letter E. In reality, the word "CRITTUR" appears in the current dictionaries and is indeed properly spelled that way, as is the word "critter."
I did find just ONE error (so far) within those pages. It is something where the word "don't" was used improperly, when "doesn't" would have been the correct choice. It would be something like, "Mary don't hunt," when it would be preferred to say, "Mary doesn't hunt."
But, if you purchase this book, I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did and like those who bought it in 1939 (first publication), you will not wish to part with it, as it is the only one of its kind, ever to be produced.
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Genau hier liegt meiner Ansicht nach das Problem bei GADSBY: das bemerkenswerte an diesem Buch ist schlichtweg die Tatsache das über die volle Distanz kein "E" in ihm vorkommt - nicht mehr und nicht weniger. Allerdings sorgt dies nicht nur für mitunter reichlich irritierende Formulierungen und für einen sehr unruhigen Lesefluss, sondern auch dafür, das GADSBY von dieser Ausnahme abgesehen rein gar nichts zu bieten hat.
der Roman liest sich anstrengend, viele Formulierungen sind sehr redundant und die Handlung wird schlichtweg nicht sonderlich gut erzählt.
Insofern respektiere ich durchaus die Leistung des Autors, einen Roman zu verfassen, bei dem er gänzlich auf einen der häufigsten Vokale des Alphabets verzichtete. Einen guten Roman hat er durch diese Fleißarbeit leider dennnoch nicht vorgelegt.
Mehr als zwei Sterne sind bei mir nicht drin.
GADSBY ist meiner Ansicht nach eher ein Kuriosum als ein ernstzunehmender Roman.
Naturally, this is a rib - In truth, it’s a task of high difficulty, which our author has skilfully brought about. I am obviously trying to mimic him in this analysis, and I can only say that should I commit to writing a full book in this way, I would finish up in an asylum. Bravo!






