Exercises in Style

Queneau, Raymond

ISBN 10: 0811207897 / ISBN 13: 9780811207898

Published by New Directions, 1981

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Exercises in Style
• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811207897
• ISBN 13: 9780811207898
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

“A work of genius in a brilliant translation by Barbara Wright….Endlessly fascinating and very funny.” ―Philip Pullman

The plot of Exercises in Style is simple: a man gets into an argument with another passenger on a bus. However, this anecdote is told 99 more times, each in a radically different style, as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and with many more permutations. This virtuoso set of variations is a linguistic rust-remover, and a guide to literary forms.

About the Authors

Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.

Barbara Wright has translated several Raymond Queneau novels; indeed, as John Updike wrote in The New Yorker, she "has waltzed around the floor with the Master so many times by now that she follows his quirky French as if the steps were in English." She has also translated works by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Robert Pinget, Nathalie Sarraute, and Marguerite Duras. She lives in London.