Georges Perek. Disappearance
Georges Perek. Disappearance Georges Perec. La Disparition
«La Disparition» is a lypogramatic French novel by Georges Perek, written in 1969. In the text more than 300 pages, the letter E, the most common in French, is never found. Based on his own limitations, the novel describes tragic events that follow the disappearance of Anthea Glass. The characters constantly face the constraints of lack of a symbol and eventually die as soon as they get too close to the truth.
The book consists of: — an original French novel — a novel translated into Russian — a literary analysis — footnotes and comments
When the book was published, there was no indication of a lipogram. The reader had to understand for himself what had disappeared. However, there were many clues that led the reader to the right path: «The definition of the missing thing is a closed circle,» which resembles the form of the letter E — the novel consists of 26 chapters numbered from 1 to 4 and from 6 to 26: the fifth is missing — a reference to several series of 26 books in which there is no 5th — a race in which a horse under number 5 does not start.
For bigamy, the essence of reading is a simple formula: to read Disappearance = to notice the absence of the letter «e». It’s pushing for one-sided, mechanical reading. However, the use of lipogram is just a trick, a tool for Perek.
So the purpose of this book is «real» reading a novel.
