Exercises in Style

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Exercises in Style  
Author(s) Raymond Queneau
Original title Exercices de style
Translator Barbara Wright (English)
Country France
Language French
Genre(s) Constrained writing, Fiction
Publication date 1947
Published in
English
1958
Media type Print

Exercises in Style (French: Exercices de style), written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style. In each, the narrator gets on the "S" bus (now no. 84), witnesses an altercation between a man (a zazou) with a long neck and funny hat and another passenger, and then sees the same person two hours later at the Gare St-Lazare getting advice on adding a button to his overcoat. The literary variations recall the famous 33rd chapter of the 1512 rhetorical guide by Desiderius Erasmus, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style.

Contents

[edit] Translations

The book has been translated into the following languages :

Because, by their nature, the various retellings of the story employ fine subtleties of the French language, translations into these other languages are adaptations as well as being translations.

[edit] Styles employed

The English translation by Barbara Wright (reprinted in paperback in 1981) consists of the tale retold in the following 'styles', where the original has been adapted (rather than translated) the original title is given in italics following :-

[edit] Other adaptations

An homage in graphic novel form, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden, was published in 2005.

A story (An Exercise in Style [1]) written in 2008 by popular blogger Obi Okorougo was inspired and dedicated to Raymond Queneau.

A typographic interpretation of the German version of Exercices de Style, "Stilübungen – visuelle Interpretationen" by the graphic designer Marcus Kraft, was published in 2006.

Exercises in Style on Scribd.com

In Croatia, Tonko Maroević and Tomislav Radić adapted Exercices de Style (transferring the plot from the 1940's Paris to modern Zagreb) into a stage play for two actors, which has been played by Pero Kvrgić and Lela Margitić since 1968.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Peter E. Bondanella, Andrea Ciccarelli The Cambridge companion to the Italian novel p.169


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