Gadsby: A Lipogram Novel Paperback – March 11, 2022

I learned of this book and this type of writing exercises from a daily trivia entry on my PC. In doing more research, I found the whole concept intriguing. As a writer I respond to writing prompts to help get creative ideas flowing. This type of exercise seemed extreme to say the least. There are many more examples of this "restrictive" writing but I think this may have been one of the first major works published. I have included a poem I wrote to commemorate this great literary work.GADSBYThere's a great old book called Gadsby that you really have to seeThe entire book was written without a letter "E"Written as a lipogram a writing exercise50,000 words and it should have won a prizeIt hardly got a mention back in nineteen thirty nineThe author died soon after with scarcely a history lineIn our english language letter "E" is the most usedHow to write this book then would have me quite confusedYou can't use "one"or "three" or "five" and "seven through ten" tabooNo "Mr." or "Mrs." no "the" "me" or "we" "chapter" and "verse" eschewThe author describes how letter "E's" as animated figuresWould climb his arm and ride his pen the crafty little wrigglersThey'd wait for any little chance to slip onto his pageHe said he'd have to chase them off with sudden fits of rageWhen it came time for typing the answer was quite plainHe tied the letter "E's" arm down and there it would remainErnest Vincent Wright he clearly was a masterBut in his day he was ignored it's such a great disasterI've read the book and liked it it really is a pleasureFrom reading it alone you wouldn't know you had a treasureThe tale is of John Gadsby who lives in Branton HillsHe sees his town has gone to seed and remedies these illsHe gets a youth group started and soon the town's revivingJohn becomes the Mayor and the children all are thrivingThere's many other samples of this restrictive writingI think this was a first why this one's so inviting

Very interesting work of fiction without using the forbidden letter “E” as far as I could find. Would recommend reading as a warmup for imagination/mental Olympics to figure out just how to envision everything.

When I first learned of this book (over 50,000 words, written without the letter E being used), I just had to find and purchase a copy. But alas, none was to be found in any American library and, at the time of my initial search (over 10 years ago), I only found one copy within the South Carolina library system and THAT copy was only available on microfilm. So, using the Las Vegas (NV) interlibrary loan system, I obtained that microfilm and printed out each of the 267 pages while at the library, at a cost to me of 10¢/page, totalling $26.70.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.

Es mag für einen Schriftsteller eine beachtliche nervliche Leistung sein, ein immerhin 50000 Worte langen Roman ohne die Verwendung des Buchstaben "E" zu schreiben... allerdings macht dies sicherlich noch kein gutes Buch als solches aus.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.

The content is good, the print is okay, the idea is BRILLIANT, the effort of creating this LIPOGRAM is ASTOUNDING, delivery from amazon is (like usual) impeccable, but the printing house has defeated the entire premise on which this great effort stood and hence a SINGLE STAR. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A LIPOGRAM NOVEL - devoid of the letter E in each-and-every page of the novel. The printing house (and no one else) has (with good intentions though) inserted the Author's name on top of each alternate page and unfortunately that name contains the letter E - thrice. While the author himself has written in the introduction (page 3, 2nd paragraph from top) that he did categorically prohibited the PRINTER (the printing house) from even mentioning the word CHAPTER (for it contained an E) at the beginning of every chapter, this printing house went ahead and violated that sacred law consequently destroying the sanctum which the author intended to or rather had already created with utmost care. Nobody in this printing house (I doubt) actually read the context and contents - they just BLINDLY printed and destroyed a Rather Beautiful Idea. I now cannot gift this copy to my son for there are at least 2 occurrences of the letter E in every even-numbered page. They have MURDERED the conceept.

Me he leido el libro de cabo a rabo y no,no hay ninguna "e".La historia,no es lo que clasificariamos como interesante,pero,,como objeyto curioso cumple con creces.

To read a book is no big deal, BUT, to read a book written entirely with no words containing the letter "E" is a big challenge even for an avid reader because you want to say words with an "E" in it and change the script because it will frustrate you at times but it's a great read and lots of fun to see just how your brain reacts to it. I was going to write my review in all words with no "E" but alas I was too wrapped up in it and it was taking too long so like many of us I scrapped the idea and just gave it straight out of the mouth as it is. Try to find an original copy and you've hit a goldmine for sure but this is a nice large print book and word for word from the original so you're not missing anything. Give it a try and you will want to get it to read the whole thing! It should be in schools it's such a bizarre take on writing and language skills. Thoroughly enjoy it!

It is not as difficult as you may think to work with such constraints.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!