Stories and Remarks

Raymond Queneau—polyglot, novelist, philosopher, poet, mathematician, screenwriter, and translator—was one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French letters. His work touches on many of the major literary movements of his lifetime, from surrealism to the experimental school of the nouveau roman. He also founded the Oulipo, a collection of writers and mathematicians dedicated to the search for artificial inspiration via the application of constraint.

Stories and Remarks collects the best of Raymond Queneau's shorter prose. The works span his career and include short stories, an uncompleted novel, melancholic and absurd essays, occasionally baffling "Texticles," a pastiche of Alice in Wonderland, and his only play. Talking dogs, boozing horses, and suicides come head to head with ruminations on the effects of aerodynamics on addition, rhetorical dreams, and a pioneering example of permutational fiction influenced by computer language. Also included is Michel Leiris's preface from the French edition, an introduction by the translator, and endnotes addressing each piece individually.

Raymond Queneau—polyglot, novelist, philosopher, poet, mathematician, screenwriter, and translator—was one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French letters. His work touches on many of the major literary movements of his lifetime, from surrealism to the experimental school of the nouveau roman. He also founded the Oulipo, a collection of writers and mathematicians dedicated to the search for artificial inspiration via the application of constraint.

Library Journal

Surrealist author, Hegel commentator, mathematician, and Gallimard editor, Queneau (Zazie dans le M tro) not only worked in a variety of disciplines but wrote across the genre spectrum. These brief pieces were collected after his death in 1976 and published in France in 1981. They are expertly translated here, quite a feat given that his culture-specific writing is often impregnated with homophonic puns and other word puzzles. Arranged chronologically, they reach back to Queneau's youth and end with a piece published in 1973. Notes provide both context and publication history for each of the essays, tableaux, satires, and other brief but internally complete pieces gathered into this volume. Libraries serving scholars will, of course, want this, but so, too, will public libraries of all sizes, for it makes accessible an often incomprehensible aesthetic. In addition to adult general readers, many sophisticated teens will delight in discovering absurdism as written by this master stylist.--Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., CA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Marc Lowenthal has translated numerous works, including the forthcoming I Am a Beautiful Monster: Selected Writings of Francis Picabia.