
Exercises in Style
Raymond Queneau(Author)
Alma Classics (Publisher)
Published on 4. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-84749-241-8 (ISBN)
Description
On a crowded bus at midday, the narrator observes one man accusing another of jostling him deliberately. When a seat is vacated, the first man takes it. Later, in another part of town, the man is spotted again, while being advised by a friend to have another button sewn onto his overcoat. Exercises in Style retells this apparently unremarkable tale ninety-nine times, employing a variety of styles, ranging from sonnet to cockney to mathematical formula. Too funny to be merely a pedantic thesis, this virtuoso set of themes and variations is a linguistic rustremover, a guide to literary forms and a demonstration of imagery and inventiveness.
Reviews / Votes
Witty, playful, ingenious, it manages to transcend its own sophistication by a sort of verbal slapstick which Miss Wright translated into pure Groucho Marxism. * The Guardian * Midway between Lewis Carroll and Jacques Derrida, in a deliriously witty dimension of its own, lies Queneau's Exercises in Style... Barbara Wright's dazzling translation matches this oddball classic step by step, pun by pun. * The Independent * A pointless anecdote told in 99 different ways, or a work of genius in a brilliant translation by Barbara Wright. In fact it's both. Endlessly fascinating and very funny. -- Philip Pullman I've loved Exercises in Style for years. This translation is impeccable, extraordinary. -- Philip PullmanMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Richmond
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Alma Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
158 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84749-241-8 (9781847492418)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Previous edition
Raymond Queneau
Exercises in Style
Book
02/2009
Alma Classics
€9.95
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Raymond Queneau (1903-76) was a poet, novelist, editor, scholar and mathematician. He is best remembered for Exercises in Style and Zazie in the Metro.