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Georges Perec and the Oulipo: Winter Journeys
In 1979, Georges Perec (1936–1982) wrote a brief entertainment called “The Winter Journey” for a publisher’s catalogue. It quickly became his most frequently reprinted short story. Set on the eve of World War II, it recounts the discovery of a great literary masterpiece that conceals a scandalous secret at the heart of the whole of modern French literature. Every aspect of literary history will have to be rewritten. However, the War intervenes, and the work is lost forever. The present volume, a kind of “hyper-novel,” includes and then extends this brief parable, which turns out to be so resonant with possibilities. Georges Perec was perhaps the most celebrated member of the Oulipo group of writers in France, and over the years members of the group have written 20 sequels to this tale, between 1992 and January of this year. The result is a novel of digressions, gradual elaboration and bizarre forays into the totally unexpected. Winter Journeys has become one of the most extended and congenial literary experiments of recent times; it includes meditations on the literary tastes of worms, book-burning in the Nazi period, the delights of plagiarism and the twisted rationality of bibliophilia. First published as a limited paperback edition in 2001, this new volume is twice the length of its predecessor. Please note that pages 136-140 are intentionally printed upside down, as part of the narrative on those pages (François Caradec's "The Worm's Journey," which describes a bookworm's path through a book).
344 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2013
5 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Georges Perec
131 books1,649 followersGeorges Perec was a highly-regarded French novelist, filmmaker, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. Many of his novels and essays abound with experimental wordplay, lists, and attempts at classification, and they are usually tinged with melancholy.
Born in a working-class district of Paris, Perec was the only son of Icek Judko and Cyrla (Schulewicz) Peretz, Polish Jews who had emigrated to France in the 1920s. He was a distant relative of the Yiddish writer Isaac Leib Peretz.
Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties) was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 1965.
In 1978, Perec won the prix Médicis for Life: A User's Manual (French title, La Vie mode d'emploi), possibly his best-known work. The 99 chapters of this 600 page piece move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of a Paris apartment building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants.
Cantatrix Sopranica L. is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual puns and jokes, e.g. "(Karybb et Scyla, 1973)".
Perec is also noted for his constrained writing: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram, written without ever using the letter "e". It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994). The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name 'Georges Perec' is full of 'e's, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own 'disappearance'.
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 Revenantes. 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 which is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of the Holocaust is explained.
Perec was a heavy smoker throughout his life, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1981. He died the following year in Ivry-sur-Seine at only forty-five-years old. His ashes are held at the columbarium of the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
David Bellos wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words, which won the Académie Goncourt's bourse for biography in 1994.
Born in a working-class district of Paris, Perec was the only son of Icek Judko and Cyrla (Schulewicz) Peretz, Polish Jews who had emigrated to France in the 1920s. He was a distant relative of the Yiddish writer Isaac Leib Peretz.
Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties) was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 1965.
In 1978, Perec won the prix Médicis for Life: A User's Manual (French title, La Vie mode d'emploi), possibly his best-known work. The 99 chapters of this 600 page piece move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of a Paris apartment building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants.
Cantatrix Sopranica L. is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual puns and jokes, e.g. "(Karybb et Scyla, 1973)".
Perec is also noted for his constrained writing: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram, written without ever using the letter "e". It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994). The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name 'Georges Perec' is full of 'e's, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own 'disappearance'.
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 Revenantes. 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 which is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of the Holocaust is explained.
Perec was a heavy smoker throughout his life, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1981. He died the following year in Ivry-sur-Seine at only forty-five-years old. His ashes are held at the columbarium of the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
David Bellos wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words, which won the Académie Goncourt's bourse for biography in 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 20, 2014
a few years before his death in 1982, french novelist and notable oulipian georges perec published "le voyage d'hiver," a short story wherein a literature teacher discovers a slim book that may well rewrite the entire course of french literary history: hugo vernier's the winter journey. whereupon first glance vernier's work appears to borrow quite liberally from the likes of lautréamont, verlaine, mallarmé, rimbaud, and a host of others, it is, in fact, they that appropriated vernier - as his book was copyrighted before the aforementioned's ever saw print. with seemingly no extant copies remaining, however, the mystery of this enigmatic author and his highly influential work would perhaps remain unsolved forever.
borgesian in nature, perec's inventive short story stood simply as a minor example of his many creative talents... until 1992 when fellow oulipian jacques roubaud opted to compose "le voyage d'hier" ("yesterday's journey") - a sequel to the original perecian tale. published in the 53rd installment of the oulipo's bibliothèque oulipienne - slim, privately printed editions intended mostly for other group members - roubaud's follow-up was the first of many sequels (derivations, deviations, and other thematically-relevant asides) to be written by other oulipians over the past two decades (also published in standalone volumes of the b.o.).
winter journeys collects perec's original story, as well as the (so far) 20 sequels - from roubaud's through 2013's "le voyage obscur" ("the obscure journey"), written by daniel levin becker (the oulipo's newest member and author of many subtle channels: in praise of potential literature - an account of the origins and stylings of all things oulipo). assembled together, these works compose a "hyper-novel" of sorts, where each entry more fully rounds out the narrative (with all of the constraints, tangents, and inside jokes one would expect). oulipians lightheartedly criticize one another in subsequent stories, undermining the previous entries premises and details. it's all great oulipo fun. if you're already a devotee to constrained writing and potential literature, winter journeys is a veritable feast. a "hyper-novel," while certainly not perec's original intention, is both delectable and charming - especially one that features the ideas of "anticipatory plagiarism" and literary provenance as its subjects.
*translations from the french by ian monk, harry mathews, and john sturrock
borgesian in nature, perec's inventive short story stood simply as a minor example of his many creative talents... until 1992 when fellow oulipian jacques roubaud opted to compose "le voyage d'hier" ("yesterday's journey") - a sequel to the original perecian tale. published in the 53rd installment of the oulipo's bibliothèque oulipienne - slim, privately printed editions intended mostly for other group members - roubaud's follow-up was the first of many sequels (derivations, deviations, and other thematically-relevant asides) to be written by other oulipians over the past two decades (also published in standalone volumes of the b.o.).
winter journeys collects perec's original story, as well as the (so far) 20 sequels - from roubaud's through 2013's "le voyage obscur" ("the obscure journey"), written by daniel levin becker (the oulipo's newest member and author of many subtle channels: in praise of potential literature - an account of the origins and stylings of all things oulipo). assembled together, these works compose a "hyper-novel" of sorts, where each entry more fully rounds out the narrative (with all of the constraints, tangents, and inside jokes one would expect). oulipians lightheartedly criticize one another in subsequent stories, undermining the previous entries premises and details. it's all great oulipo fun. if you're already a devotee to constrained writing and potential literature, winter journeys is a veritable feast. a "hyper-novel," while certainly not perec's original intention, is both delectable and charming - especially one that features the ideas of "anticipatory plagiarism" and literary provenance as its subjects.
*translations from the french by ian monk, harry mathews, and john sturrock
August 29, 2013
There is nothing more fun than reading a literary work that is about books. Or the idea of books, and how it can lead to an adventure. The OULIPO group that was originally formed by Raymond Queneau is such a group that reads and writes book that becomes a game or even an quasi-science project. Georges Perec is considered the Shakespeare of the group, and therefore he leads the race with this specific book "Winter Journeys." Which, in return has caused a series of little books by writers in the OULIPO group that either continue or expand or just comments on Perec's original piece.
Perec writes of a writer named Hugo Vernier who wrote a book called "The Winter Journey" which book is before everyone else's great book. in fact his writing is the key book of avant-garde literature. Except no one has really seen it, but they have heard of it. Like a chain-letter, the various writers in Perec's world, continue the adventure of this book and what became of it or if even found. So what we have here is really a book about literature and how powerful it is as an object, or a collection of ideas. Bibliophile galore!
For those who either tipped their toes in the OULIPO world or are full-time addicts to its games and fun, this is the book to get. Also, strange enough the key graphic aspect of the book is done by the guy who originally illustrated Raymond Roussel's great "Impression of Africa." You see everything links up. Not a paranoid conspiracy but fact!
Perec writes of a writer named Hugo Vernier who wrote a book called "The Winter Journey" which book is before everyone else's great book. in fact his writing is the key book of avant-garde literature. Except no one has really seen it, but they have heard of it. Like a chain-letter, the various writers in Perec's world, continue the adventure of this book and what became of it or if even found. So what we have here is really a book about literature and how powerful it is as an object, or a collection of ideas. Bibliophile galore!
For those who either tipped their toes in the OULIPO world or are full-time addicts to its games and fun, this is the book to get. Also, strange enough the key graphic aspect of the book is done by the guy who originally illustrated Raymond Roussel's great "Impression of Africa." You see everything links up. Not a paranoid conspiracy but fact!
July 6, 2022
George Perec escribe en 1979 un relato breve titulado "Un viaje de invierno". Se publicó por primera vez en 1980 en el boletín Hachette Informations.
Se narra la historia de un profesor de literatura que encuentra azarosamente un libro titulado "Viaje de invierno", cuyo autor, Hugo Vernier, le resultaba totalmente desconocido. Este delgado volumen tenía dos partes. Durante la lectura, el profesor Degraël descubre fragmentos que corresponden a versos de importantes poetas franceses modernos. Este acontecimiento lo obsesiona absolutamente, además, el único ejemplar al que había tenido acceso se pierde en el contexto de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El académico enloquece y fallece en un hospital psiquiátrico, después de llevar a cabodurante tres décadas pesquisas diversas para hallar otro ejemplar o para saber más detalles de la vida de su autor.
Jacques Roubaud, miembro del grupo OuLiPo-al igual que Perec, escribe en 1992 un relato titulado "El viaje de ayer", donde rectifica y complementa la historia de Perec con otros datos inéditos, propiciando así nuevas aristas e interrogantes sobre la obra perdida de Hugo Vernier.
De esta forma, distintos integrantes del grupo OuLiPo van sumándose a esta reescritura del "Viaje de invierno" de Perec, configurándose esta especie de "novela colectiva", un artefacto literario de carácter lúdico altamente atractivo.
Una obra que deja en evidencia que la literatura está hecha de literatura.
Se narra la historia de un profesor de literatura que encuentra azarosamente un libro titulado "Viaje de invierno", cuyo autor, Hugo Vernier, le resultaba totalmente desconocido. Este delgado volumen tenía dos partes. Durante la lectura, el profesor Degraël descubre fragmentos que corresponden a versos de importantes poetas franceses modernos. Este acontecimiento lo obsesiona absolutamente, además, el único ejemplar al que había tenido acceso se pierde en el contexto de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El académico enloquece y fallece en un hospital psiquiátrico, después de llevar a cabodurante tres décadas pesquisas diversas para hallar otro ejemplar o para saber más detalles de la vida de su autor.
Jacques Roubaud, miembro del grupo OuLiPo-al igual que Perec, escribe en 1992 un relato titulado "El viaje de ayer", donde rectifica y complementa la historia de Perec con otros datos inéditos, propiciando así nuevas aristas e interrogantes sobre la obra perdida de Hugo Vernier.
De esta forma, distintos integrantes del grupo OuLiPo van sumándose a esta reescritura del "Viaje de invierno" de Perec, configurándose esta especie de "novela colectiva", un artefacto literario de carácter lúdico altamente atractivo.
Una obra que deja en evidencia que la literatura está hecha de literatura.
July 29, 2020
Cartea este compusa dintr-o serie de nuvele scrise de scriitori apartinand grupului Oulipo. Aceste nuvele au ca punct de plecare o povestire scrisa de George Perec (reprezentantul cel mai de seama al grupului), mai precis personajul principal al acesteia, Hugo Vernier.
Punandu-si imaginatia la incercare, scriitorii au reusit sa creeze povesti extrem de bune, cu intorsaturi neprevazute. Insa intr-o carte care contine 21 astfel de povestiri, era greu sa fie toate bune. Unele sunt plictisitoare, altele poate au o cheie pe care eu nu am gasit-o si practic textul nu are nici un sens fara aceasta. Per total sentimentul cu care te lasa cartea este de incompletitudine. Daca ideea este sa ne minunam in fata capacitatii creatoare a unor scriitori, atunci in mare parte cartea isi atinge telul. In rest, ok, o numim hipernovela, Roman 2.0 sau cum vreti voi, insa fiecare poveste nu are nici o continuare, totul se termina in coada de peste si, daca se intampla ca un alt scriitor sa preia o mica fractiune din tema altuia, o face doar ca punct de lansare pentru o noua povestire fara legatura cu cea a predecesorului.
Ce mi s-a parut captivant a fost transformarea scriitorilor in personaje. In plus faptul ca una din povestiri este scrisa de mult-cautatul Hugo Vernier aduce iarasi o doza de neprevazut.
Una peste alta, asa de vacanta merge.
Punandu-si imaginatia la incercare, scriitorii au reusit sa creeze povesti extrem de bune, cu intorsaturi neprevazute. Insa intr-o carte care contine 21 astfel de povestiri, era greu sa fie toate bune. Unele sunt plictisitoare, altele poate au o cheie pe care eu nu am gasit-o si practic textul nu are nici un sens fara aceasta. Per total sentimentul cu care te lasa cartea este de incompletitudine. Daca ideea este sa ne minunam in fata capacitatii creatoare a unor scriitori, atunci in mare parte cartea isi atinge telul. In rest, ok, o numim hipernovela, Roman 2.0 sau cum vreti voi, insa fiecare poveste nu are nici o continuare, totul se termina in coada de peste si, daca se intampla ca un alt scriitor sa preia o mica fractiune din tema altuia, o face doar ca punct de lansare pentru o noua povestire fara legatura cu cea a predecesorului.
Ce mi s-a parut captivant a fost transformarea scriitorilor in personaje. In plus faptul ca una din povestiri este scrisa de mult-cautatul Hugo Vernier aduce iarasi o doza de neprevazut.
Una peste alta, asa de vacanta merge.
October 10, 2024
c'est dur à étudier omgg, mais bon... banger la nouvelle de Perec!
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March 22, 2014A collection of related stories written by associates of the Oulipo - that group of formalist experimenters in literature. The first, eponymous, story is by Georges Perec, and each subsequent stories builds off that, and sometimes also off the other stories too. These shorts are, clearly, highly referential, they are often recursive (writing about writing (about writing...)), and many are written in a pseudo-academic style, which I guess is in the nature of the exercise's conceit.
Broadly, the stories fall into a few types - those which elaborate on Perec's initial story; those which, more independently, further its underlying theme; those which are more about Perec's writing of the story; and those about the whole phenomenon of its existance. Some of those are more interesting than others.
It rather felt like being at a (fairly long) dinner party where everyone else knows each other much better than you know anybody. You occasionally get their jokes or allusions, but you get the feeling that much is going over your head. As such, particularly as the book wore on, and the stories tended to the more 'meta', it felt like more and more of a chore. I think the footnotes could have helped explain some of the references, but maybe that would have spoiled the joke.
As a sidenote, I did enjoy Étienne Lécroart's story, where the references were to classic bande desinée stories, complete with a few cute illustrations.
Broadly, the stories fall into a few types - those which elaborate on Perec's initial story; those which, more independently, further its underlying theme; those which are more about Perec's writing of the story; and those about the whole phenomenon of its existance. Some of those are more interesting than others.
It rather felt like being at a (fairly long) dinner party where everyone else knows each other much better than you know anybody. You occasionally get their jokes or allusions, but you get the feeling that much is going over your head. As such, particularly as the book wore on, and the stories tended to the more 'meta', it felt like more and more of a chore. I think the footnotes could have helped explain some of the references, but maybe that would have spoiled the joke.
As a sidenote, I did enjoy Étienne Lécroart's story, where the references were to classic bande desinée stories, complete with a few cute illustrations.
December 10, 2025
Aman bee...
January 6, 2023
A partir de un pequeño relato de Perec, El viaje de invierno, los Oulipo entrelazan +20 relatos, casi como una novela colectiva … aunque lo sentí más como un juego. A mi me encantó, puede que a muchos no, pero de algo creo estar seguro: los Oulipo se divirtieron!
June 3, 2013
An entertaining pseudo-academic rabbit hole.
January 12, 2014
Absolutely brilliant.
August 28, 2018
Bonkers hyper-novel of 'sequels' to A Winter Journey. Got me excited about Oulipo and 'potential literature' again
February 22, 2025
Cortazar and Borges would have loved it
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews