Exercises in Style

by Raymond Queneau, Barbara Wright (Translator)

Overview

“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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811207898
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	02/17/1981
Edition description:	2ND
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

…one of the signal accomplishments in 20th-century avant-garde literature…Exercises in Style was a revolution, a book that proclaimed its powerful ideas simply by pursuing their iron logic. An inveterate experimenter who was particularly attracted to rendering spoken French on the page, Queneau shows here how the act of writing draws our thoughts into prescribed channels, conditioning how we construct narratives for ourselves and, ultimately, what we think about the world around us.

The Washington Post - Scott Esposito

"Exercises in Style was a revolution, a book that proclaimed its powerful ideas simply by pursuing their iron logic."

The Washington Post

"Exercises in Style is an irresistibly simple and frequently hilarious demonstration of the potential of language."

The Believer Logger

"It’s fair to say that Exercises in Style turns the current thinking about writing entirely, and brilliantly, on its head."

The New Inquiry - Yuka Igarashi

"It’s a testament to Queneau’s ability as a writer, and just as interestingly, it sort of blows apart the idea of how many ways a story can be told—and how style can be more important than content."

Three Percent - Chad W. Post

"This witty, bizarre read is perfect for dipping into, or reading from cover to cover, for anybody who loves storytelling."

The Huffington Post

"Queneau’s Exercises in Style is a thrilling masterpiece and, in fact, one of the greatest stories in French literature."

Vladimir Nabokov

"It will remind you of just how weird and infinite human language is."

BOMBlog - Raphael Rubinstein