Ernest Vincent Wright - The novel is written as a lipogram and does not include words that contain the letter "e". When it first appeared in 1939 it was hardly noticed by the general public, but a modern reviewer called it "probably the most ambitious work ever attempted in this genre"

 

Ernest Vincent Wright, Gadsby, 1939.

excerpt

Written from the perspective of a self-deprecating narrator, 'Gadsby' is - at its core - a tale of a town in a state of concerted rebirth. In an effort to reverse the plight of the place that he calls home, the protagonist organizes the town's youth. In doing so, we watch as the small piece of suburbia becomes a shining beacon of what towns can - and perhaps should - be. Once established, we are led through a series of years, ever bearing witness to the idealism of the organized youth, and the results of their labors. While not a particularly compelling story, the reverence for this work of narrative art is not diminished. What makes this book notable is the ridiculously difficult challenge in crafting that it presents, and the time, effort, and passion it must have taken to give rise to such a thing. It is an overt, Quixotic flaunting against the word ‘impossible’.

Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E" is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalized thanks to the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes.

The novel is written as a lipogram and does not include words that contain the letter "e". Though self-published and little-noticed in its time, the book is a favourite of fans of constrained writing and is a sought-after rarity among some book collectors.

The novel's 50,110 words do not contain a single e. In Gadsby's introduction Wright says his primary difficulty was avoiding the "-ed" suffix for past tense verbs. He focused on using verbs that do not take the -ed suffix and constructions with "do" (for instance "did walk" instead of "walked"). Scarcity of word options also drastically limited discussion involving quantity, pronouns, and many common words. Wright was unable to talk about any quantity between six and thirty. An article in the linguistic periodical Word Ways said that 250 of the 500 most commonly used words in English were still available to Wright despite the omission of words with e. Wright uses abbreviations on occasion, but only if the full form is similarly lipogrammatic, i.e. "Dr." (Doctor), and "P.S." (Postscript) would be allowed but not "Mr." (Mister).

Wright also turns famous sayings into lipogrammatic form. Music can "calm a wild bosom", and Keats' "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" becomes "a charming thing is a joy always".

Fifty-year-old John Gadsby is alarmed by the decline of his hometown, Branton Hills, and rallies the city's young people to form an "Organization of Youth" to build civic spirit and improve living standards. Gadsby and his youthful army, despite some opposition, transform Branton Hills from a stagnant municipality into a bustling, thriving city. Toward the end of the book the members of Gadsby's organization receive diplomas in honor of their work. Gadsby becomes mayor and helps increase Branton Hills' population from 2,000 to 60,000. The story begins around 1906 and continues through World War I, Prohibition, and President Warren G. Harding's administration.

"Gadsby" is a lipogram - a whole novel of some 50.000 words without a single instance of the letter E. When it first appeared in 1939 it was hardly noticed by the general public, but a modern reviewer called it "probably the most ambitious work ever attempted in this genre". Hardcopies of the book are extremely rare and sell for thousands of dollars. (Summary by Availle and Wikipedia)

 First, credit where credit is due: Ernest Vincent Wright managed to write a 50,000 word novel without using the letter 'e'. If you're wondering just how tough that is, my first sentence there had 15 of them. From that perspective, this is a fun read.

Beyond that, though, I don't know how many people are going to stick with this book. It's an overly cute - I'd have to say trite - "Our Town" style story about John Gadsby and his campaign to wake up the sleepy little town of Branton Hills through his Organization of Youth - both turning the little town into a booming city and empowering the next generation.

It's a very dated (written in 1939 and set well before that) book and carries the same sensibility. The boys go off to war, build homes and get jobs while the ladies take care of the babies. Looming over it all, of course, is the spectre of demon alcohol. Some of it is cute, some is even motivational, but a lot is syrupy and sickly sweet, which to be fair was the way of storytelling back then.

A shorter novel - clocking in at 123 pages - you can probably get through it before the "no 'e'" novelty wears off but all you'll really take away from it is the fact that he pulled it off. That said, I caught him cheating twice, but I'm a grammar Nazi. - Larry McCloskey

I thought I would try to copy Wright in my ruminations about his book Gadsby, which has no hint of what follows D's tail in our ABC. Not in any word put to work in this story! But it is so difficult (and slow) to think in such a way that I will quit and go back to normal, although I must pat my own back for writing this far without using that tiny but important thing known as an E.

When I first saw this book listed at Project Gutenberg, I had to wonder why anyone would try to pull such a stunt. A story of 50,000 words without using a single E?! The man must have been bored, had way too much time on his hands, who knows what. But I became more and more curious. How did he do it? Did he write a real story that made sense or did he just scribble some vaguely connected thoughts? I added it to my To-Read list, thinking I would get to it someday.

But everyday I saw the title there on my profile page and finally I could not stand the suspense anymore so I started to read. The author discusses the challenge in his introduction, reminding everyone of his plans for the story and how he sometimes would start a thought and have to go back and start over after writing himself into a corner.

I was distracted at first by hunting for the missing letter; who wouldn't be? But I quickly became caught up in the history of the town of Branton Hills and Gadsby, the man who nearly single-handedly was responsible for helping the town grow into a near Utopia. There is sometimes a bit of preachiness and moralizing, but there is also drama: it seems that even without an E in sight, there are always a few snakes in any garden of Eden.

This story felt like reading a letter from an old friend, and I was actually sorry to come the end, but happy with the way everything turned out. Then I saw the note below FINIS. "Transcriber's Note: Did any "e"s survive the publishing process? Yes, three "the"s, and one "officers" — all have been retained as published." I don't remember seeing a single E, and some day I will re-read to see if these three really are there. If you find them, let me know! - Debbie Zapata

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1454666.Gadsby