A Void

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A Void, translated from the original French {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Lit. "The Disappearance"), is a 300-page French lipogrammatic novel, written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without using the letter e, following Oulipo constraints. Perec would go on to write with the inverse constraint in Les Revenentes, with only the vowel “e” present in the work. Ian Monk would later translate Les Revenentes into English under the title The Exeter Text.

TranslationsEdit

It was translated into English by Gilbert Adair, with the title A Void, for which he won the Scott Moncrieff Prize in 1995.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Adair translation of the book also won the 1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Fiction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Three other English translations are titled A Vanishing by Ian Monk,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Vanish'd! by John Lee,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Omissions by Julian West.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

All translators have imposed upon themselves a similar lipogrammatic constraint to the original, avoiding the most commonly used letter of the alphabet. This precludes the use of words normally considered essential such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("and"), and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (masculine "the") in French, as well as "me", "be", and "the" in English. The Spanish version contains no a, which is the second most commonly used letter in the Spanish language (first being e), while the Russian version contains no о. The Japanese version does not use syllables containing the sound "i" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, etc.) at all.

Other languages translations
Language	Author	Title	Year
German	Eugen Helmlé	lang}}	1986
Italian	Piero Falchetta	lang}}	1995
Spanish	Hermes Salceda	lang}}	1997
Swedish	Sture Pyk	lang}}	2000
Russian	Ales Astashonok-Zhgirovsky	lang}} [Ischeznovenie]	2001
Russian	Valeriy Kislov	lang}} [Ischezanie]	2005
Turkish	Cemal Yardımcı	lang}}	2006
Dutch	Guido van de Wiel	lang}}	2009
Romanian	Serban Foarta	lang}}	2010
Japanese	Shuichiro Shiotsuka	lang}} [Emmetsu]	2010
Croatian	Vanda Mikšić	lang}}	2012
Portuguese	José Roberto "Zéfere" Andrades Féres	lang}}	2016
Catalan	Adrià Pujol Cruells	lang}}	2017
Polish	René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak	lang}}	2022
Finnish	Ville Keynäs	lang}}	2023

Plot summaryEdit

A VoidTemplate:'s plot follows a group of individuals looking for a missing companion, Anton Vowl. It is in part a parody of noir and horror fiction, with many stylistic tricks, gags, plot twists, and a grim conclusion. On many occasions it implicitly talks about its own lipogrammatic limitation, highlighting its unusual syntax. A VoidTemplate:'s protagonists finally work out which symbol is missing, but find it a hazardous topic to discuss, as any who try to bypass this story's constraint risk fatal injury. Philip Howard, writing a lipogrammatic appraisal of A Void in his column Lost Words, said: "This is a story chock-full of plots and sub-plots, of loops within loops, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which allow its author an opportunity to display his customary virtuosity as an avant-gardist magician, acrobat and clown."

Major themesEdit

Both of Georges Perec's parents perished in World War II: his father as a soldier and his mother in the Holocaust. He was brought up by his aunt and uncle after surviving the war. Warren Motte interprets the absence of the letter e in the book as a metaphor for Perec's own sense of loss and incompleteness:<ref name="wmcontext">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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VersionsEdit

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

Template:Georges Perec