The Penguin Book of Oulipo: Queneau, Perec, Calvino and the Adventure of Form

A celebration of one of the most curious and playful literary groups of the twentieth century Brought together for the first time, here are 100 pieces of 'Oulipo' writing, celebrating the literary group who revelled in maths problems, puzzles, trickery, wordplay and conundrums. Featuring writers including Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau and Italo Calvino, it includes poems, short stories, word games and even recipes. Alongside these famous Oulipians, are 'anticipatory' wordsmiths who crafted language with unusual constraints and literary tricks, from Jonathan Swift to Lewis Carroll. Philip Terry's playful selection will appeal to lovers of word games, puzzles and literary delights.

About the Author :
Philip Terry is a translator, and a writer of fiction and poetry. He has translated the work of Georges Perec, Stephane Mallarme and Raymond Queneau, and is the author of the novel tapestry, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. His poetry volumes include Oulipoems, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Dante's Inferno, Quennets, Bad Times and Dictator, a version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. He is currently translating Ice Age signs.

Review :
A superb selection ... Lovers of word games and literary puzzles will relish this indispensable anthology celebrating Perec, Calvino and many others ... Terry's anthology connects us to a wider world of Oulipian wordplay, and beyond. There is real gold in Terry's selection ... the perfect illustration of the Oulipian balancing act of producing writing that is both wry and moving at the same time. At times, you simply have to stand back in amazement ... Philip Terry - himself a fine formalist poet and a distinguished translator of Oulipo - has put together as good a tasting menu as any. The 100 examples of Oulipian and relatedly formalist work here maintain an almost uniform virtuosic ingenuity, and reward reading, even en masse. Magnificent ... Terry's introduction pays witty homage to Oulipians' obsession with order, for it offers an A-Z guide to the movement's major writers and formulae. Philip Terry's collection is packed with fabulous, wide-ranging work thatdisplays the full ingenuity, brio and originality of Oulipian ideals in action. An exhilarating feat of in-depth reading, and translating, it takes its place as the definitive anthology in English for decades to come. Philip Terry's rich anthology of Oulipo writings from Rabelais to Perec [is] a salutary reminder that laughter and linguistic dexterity are as much part of what it means to be human as violence and greed. A wonderful anthology. Indispensible, informative and playful ... no two pages are alike, and every page is quite unlike anything else you've ever read.