Editing Georges Perec (section)

==Work==
[[File:Ambigramme_de_Georges_Perec_-_andin_basnoda_a_une_epouse_qui_pue_-_animation.gif|thumb|[[Ambigram]] by Georges Perec.<ref name="PerecLiberation">{{Cite web|title=L'écrit touareg du sable au papier.Un typographe français a retranscrit l'alphabet des hommes du désert.|url=https://www.liberation.fr/culture/1996/07/27/l-ecrit-touareg-du-sable-au-papierun-typographe-francais-a-retranscrit-l-alphabet-des-hommes-du-dese_176184/|date=1996-07-27|access-date=2021-08-07|website=Liberation|language=fr}}</ref><ref name="BasnodaCabinetPerec">{{Cite web|title=Les tristes épousailles d'Andin Basnoda, Pierre di Sciullo & Bernard Magné|url=http://www.cabinetperec.org:80/anciens-numeros/cabinet-1/basnoda/basnoda-article.html|access-date=2021-08-22|website=Cabinet Perec|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205170358/http://www.cabinetperec.org:80/anciens-numeros/cabinet-1/basnoda/basnoda-article.html|archive-date=5 February 2007|language=fr}}</ref>]]
Many of Perec's novels and essays abound with experimental [[word play]], lists and attempts at [[Categorization|classification]], and they are usually tinged with [[Depression (mood)|melancholy]].

Perec's first novel ''Les Choses'' (published in English as ''[[Things: A Story of the Sixties]]'') (1965) was awarded the [[Prix Renaudot]].

Perec's most famous novel ''La Vie mode d'emploi'' (''[[Life: A User's Manual]]'') was published in 1978. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading. ''La Vie mode d'emploi'' is a tapestry of interwoven stories and ideas as well as literary and historical allusions, based on the lives of the inhabitants of a fictitious Parisian apartment block. It was written according to a complex plan of writing constraints and is primarily constructed from several elements, each adding a layer of complexity. The 99 chapters of his 600-page novel move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of the building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants. At the end, it is revealed that the whole book actually takes place in a single moment, with a final twist that is an example of "[[cosmic irony]]". It was translated into English by [[David Bellos]] in 1987.

Perec is noted for his [[constrained writing]]. His 300-page novel ''La disparition'' (1969) is a [[lipogram]], written with natural sentence structure and correct grammar, but using only words that do not contain the letter "e". It has been translated into English by [[Gilbert Adair]] under the title ''[[A Void]]'' (1994). His novella ''Les revenentes'' (1972) is a complementary [[univocalic]] piece in which the letter "e" is the only vowel used. This constraint affects even the title, which would conventionally be spelt ''Reven'''a'''ntes''. An English translation by [[Ian Monk]] was published in 1996 as ''The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex'' in the collection ''Three''. It has been remarked by [[Jacques Roubaud]] that these two novels draw words from two [[disjoint sets]] of the French language, and that a third novel would be possible, made from the words not used so far (those containing both "e" and a vowel other than "e").

''W ou le souvenir d'enfance'', (''[[W, or the Memory of Childhood]]'', 1975) is a semi-autobiographical work that is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: The first is a fictional outline of a remote island country called "W", which at first appears to be a [[utopia]]n society modelled on the [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] ideal but is gradually exposed as a horrifying, [[totalitarian]] prison much like a [[concentration camp]]. The second is a description of Perec's childhood during and after World War II. Both narratives converge towards the end, highlighting the common theme of [[the Holocaust]].

"Cantatrix sopranica L. Scientific Papers" is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All references in the paper are multi-lingual [[pun]]s and jokes; e.g., "([[Charybdis|Karybb]] & [[Scylla|Szyla]], 1973)".<ref>[http://www.pianotype.net/doc/tomatotopic.htm "Mise en évidence expérimentale d'une organisation tomatotopique chez la soprano (''Cantatrix sopranica L.'')"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223144638/http://www.pianotype.net/doc/tomatotopic.htm |date=23 December 2011 }} {{in lang|fr}}<br />[http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/tomato/tomato.html "Experimental demonstration of the tomatotopic organization in the Soprano (''Cantatrix sopranica L.'')"]</ref>

[[David Bellos]], who has translated several of Perec's works, wrote an extensive biography of Perec entitled ''[[Georges Perec: A Life in Words]]'', which won the [[Académie Goncourt]]'s ''bourse'' for biography in 1994.

The Association Georges Perec has extensive archives on the author in Paris.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.associationgeorgesperec.fr|title=Association Georges Perec}}</ref>

In 1992 Perec's initially rejected novel ''Gaspard pas mort'' (''Gaspard not dead''), believed to be lost, was found by David Bellos amongst papers in the house of Perec's friend {{Interlanguage link|Alain Guérin|fr}}. The novel was reworked several times and retitled ''{{Interlanguage link|Le Condottière|fr}}''<ref>[http://www.bookforum.com/archive/dec_05/gibbons.html "The Letter Vanishes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103132007/https://www.bookforum.com/archive/dec_05/gibbons.html |date=3 November 2018 }} by James Gibbons, ''[[Bookforum]]'', December/January 2006</ref> and published in 2012; its English translation by Bellos followed in 2014 as ''Portrait of a Man'' after the [[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, London)|1475 painting of that name]] by [[Antonello da Messina]].<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/apr/08/georges-perec-lost-novel/ "Georges Perec's Lost Novel"] by [[David Bellos]], ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', 8 April 2015</ref> The initial title borrows the name Gaspard from the [[Paul Verlaine]] poem "Gaspar Hauser Chante"<ref name="Bellos1993">{{cite book|author=David Bellos|author-link=David Bellos|title=Georges Perec: A Life in Words : a Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/georgespereclife0000bell|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=D. R. Godine|isbn=978-0-87923-980-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/georgespereclife0000bell/page/108 108]}}</ref> (inspired by [[Kaspar Hauser]], from the 1881 collection ''[[Sagesse]]'') and characters named "Gaspard" appear in both ''[[W, or the Memory of Childhood]]'' and ''[[Life: A User's Manual]]'', while in ''MICRO-TRADUCTIONS, 15 variations discrètes sur un poème connu'' he creatively re-writes the Verlaine poem fifteen  times.