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Loading... The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure (edition 2014)by C. D. Rose
Work InformationThe Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure by C. D. Rose
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A deeply imaginative exercise in literary loss, told through fifty-two short vignettes of (fictional) would-be authors who weren't, extremely prolific authors whose works are utterly unknown to us today ... even writers who literally ate their own words. While there were a few elements of this that I found just a bit too gimmicky, overall I enjoyed the ride, particularly the intertwining of the authors and works that I began to recognize about midway through. A neat concept, well executed. no reviews | add a review
A complete compendium of failed writers from A to Z, which is both tragic and darkly hilarious. The Biographical Dictionary Of Literary Failure is essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered about all the writers who never made it onto the shelves of a bookshop, and all the great writers and their works, who remain unknown. Meet Ernst Bellmer, the bibliophage. For Bellmer, the aesthetic act was not complete unless his words, once committed to paper, were then eaten. Unfortunately for him, he died of ink poisoning, and left no trace of his life's work. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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C.D. Rose gathers all manners of authorial misfortune in his collection of imagined authors. I have to admire his Borgesian project as well as his conceit. The traces of the latter afford one the grim grin when pondering the Pens of Omission.
It wasn't until I had finished the book this evening that I realized the author hails from Manchester. He laments the dearth of a true Mancunian Sage in one of the final pieces. I'm not sure this achievement will pave the way for posterity. Such is the terrain of this survey: the references litter the ground and while you are chuckling at a nod to Wu MIng or 50 Shades, you miss the glib segues to Paul Nizan or Miodrag Bulatovic.
Any taxonomy of failure should be frustrating or boring. How many errors can we ponder without losing interest? The encapsulated contexts proved sufficient for me and I thus breezed along, even after considering dumping the book 2-3 times in the initial 50 pages. There is an adroit eye for detail and it is effective.
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