Georges Perec: A Life in Words
by David Bellos
On This Page
Description
This is the first complete biography of Georges Perec (1936-1982), novelist, poet, verbal gamesman, master puzzler ? a man at once eccentric, brilliant, and endearingly ordinary, whom Italo Calvino called "so singular a literary personality that he bears absolutely no resemblance to anyone else."Perec's novels are widely regarded as modern classics, but his linguistic mastery actually extended to a stunning variety of forms: from autobiography, drama, and criticism to crossword puzzles and show more the world's longest palindrome. Ever in search of new verbal challenges, he wrote one novel entirely without the letter e; and in 1978 he published the monumental, structurally complex Life A User's Manual, which many critics have placed (in the words of The Boston Globe) "on the level of Joyce, Proust, Mann, Kafka, and Nabokov."In Georges Perec: A Life in Words, David Bellos, Perec's award-winning English translator, introduces the enigmatic figure behind these remarkable works, showing how Perec's experiences led to such masterpieces as Life, the celebrated Things, and the harrowing W or The Memory of Childhood ? the latter inspired by his parents' deaths during World War II (one of them at Aucshwitz) and by his own sense of guilt as a survivor.Using unpublished documents and firsthand interviews, Bellos details Perec's tragic childhood, his difficult apprenticeship, his emergence into literary renown, and finally his death from cancer at age 46. He traces the influences of Perec's Polish-Jewish background, and of the friendships'with such figures as Calvino, Raymond Queneau, Harry Mathews, and others'that helped shape this extraordinary life. He offers privileged insights, born of many years' reflection and study, into Perec's vertiginous works. He situates Perec as a primary figure of French intellectual life in the 1960s and 1970s, due in part to his collaborations with the radically inventive OuLiPo group (whose name condenses the emblematic phrase "Workshop of Potential Literature"). And he shows the painstaking process by which a phenomenally gifted writer, suffering from a sheltered past crippling emotional burden, reconstructed his life in the only way he knew how: in words. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Deserves to sit along the best of Richard Ellmann and Brian Boyd. Magisterial erudition captures Perec"s wonky world. Early in the biography the reader is informed of the myriad puns associated with Perec's name. Perec in Serbo-Croat means pretzel. The sinuous always appeared second nature to Georgie Pretzel, for sure but throbbing sorrow adumbrates its own moribund rhythm across his life. This marks the end of this trip and the time spent with this book was so appropriate. Perec loved Belgrade, as do I. History's dark curtains often demarcate the players and the acts. It is a shame that Perec didn't have time to raise a few more.
Very detailed biography, 802 pages in length, covering 45 or so years of life.
Me ha parecido un libro estupendo, casi más una novela que una biografía. He comprendido muchas cosas que no había comprendido y he empezado a releer a Perec. Me quedo especialmente con la relación entre Perec y el judaísmo, que me había pasado completamente desapercibida cuando me empecé a interesar en Perec. Quizá era muy joven...
Nov 11, 2025Spanish
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Writing
81 works; 1 member
Author Information
14+ Works 1,551 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Harvill (202)
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Georges Perec: a life in words
- Original publication date
- 1993
- People/Characters
- Georges Perec
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 848.91409 — Literature & rhetoric French Literature French miscellaneous writings 1900- 1900-1999 1945-1999 Individual authors
- LCC
- PQ2676 .E67 .Z53 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Modern literature 1961-2000
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 192
- Popularity
- 169,728
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 2
