Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau Read Free Book Online

overcoats and, near the top of it, just below the opening, you’d put a
     darling little button drawn with great precision and loving care.

uditory
    Quacking and letting off, the S came rasping to a halt alongside the silent pavement. The sun’s trombone flattened the midday note. The pedestrians, bawling bagpipes, shouted out their numbers. Some went up a semitone, which sufficed to carry them off towards the Porte Champerret with its chanting arcades. Among the panting élite was a clarinet tube to whom the untowardness of the times had given human form, and the perversity of a hatmaker had given to wear on the coconut an instrument which resembled a guitar that might perhaps have plaited its strings together to make a girdle. Suddenly in the middle ofsome minor arrangements between enterprising passengers and consenting passengeresses and of bleating tremolos from the covetous conductor, a ludicrous cacophony broke out in which the fury of the double bass was blended with the irritation of the trumpet and the jitters of the bassoon.
    Then, after sigh, silence, pause and double pause, there rang forth the triumphant melody of a button in the process of going up an octave.

  elegraphic
    BUS CROWDED STOP YNGMAN LONGNECK PLAITENCIRCLED HAT APOSTROPHISES
     UNKNOWN PASSENGER UNAPPARENT REASON STOP QUERY FINGERS FEET HURT CONTACT HEEL ALLEGED
     PURPOSELY STOP YNGMAN ABANDONS DISCUSSION PRO-VACANT SEAT STOP 1400 HOURS PLACE ROME
     YNGMAN LISTENS SARTORIAL ADVICE FRIEND STOP MOVE BUTTON STOP SIGNED ARCTURUS

   de
    O in the bus
    O in the bin
    th ’yomnibus S
    th ’yomnibussin
    which with percuss
    and hellish din
    goes on its way
    with us within
    nearth’ Pare Monceau
    nearth’ Pare Monsin
    in the sun’s glow
    in the sun’s glin
    Monsieur André
    whose neck’s too thin
    wears a hatuss
    wears a hatin
    in th ’yomnibus
    in th ’yomnibin
    And this hatuss
    and this hatin
    is ribbonless
    is ribbonlin
    in th ’yomnibus
    in th ’yomnibin
    and what is muss
    and what is min
    there’s an excess
    of bods therein
    and this André
    whose neck’s too thin
    starts to inveigh
    starts to invin
    against a cuss
    against a kin
    in th ’yomnibus
    in th ’yomnibin
    but this same cuss
    but this same kin
    za bit too tuss
    za bit too tin
    and says his say
    and says his sin
    on th ’yomnibus
    on th ’yomnibin
    and our André
    whose neck’s too thin
    goes by express
    goes by exprin
    in the bus S
    in the bussin
    a seat to let
    his arse sink in
    A seat I’d let
    my arse sink in
    I the poet
    gay Harlequin
    and two hours
    after I saw him
    at Saint-Lazare
    at Saint-Lazin
    the station? yeah
    so spick and spin
    him, that’s André
    whose neck’s too thin
    I heard him say
    “O pardon min
    my dear old pay
    my dear old pin
    for my buttuss
    for my buttin”
    quite near the bus
    quite near the bin
    Now if by
    chancetmy tale you grin
    since happiness
    was born a twin
    then take no restand
    take no rin
    until from far
    until from finn
    from the bus S
    from the bussin
    you too your eyes
    should chance to spin
    on that André
    whose neck’s too thin
    & his hatuss
    & his hatin
    & his buttuss
    & his buttin
    in th ’yomnibus
    in th ’yomnibin
    th ’yomnibus S
    th ’yomnibussin.

Permutations by
     groups
of 2, 3, 4 and 5 letters
    Ed on to ay rd wa id sm yo da he nt ar re at pl rm fo an of us sb aw is
     ou ay ma ng ho nw ne se wa ck oo st ng lo dw an wa ho ea sw ng ri at ah th wi la ap ro
     it dt un sa he me.
    Den sud est lyh edt art ran oha his gue ghb nei cla our ngt imi hew
     hat urp asp lyt ose din rea his gon sev toe tim ery yon ean tin ego ut oro.
    Verh howe idly erap done aban disc dthe onan ussi eada dmad rava shfo
     seat cant.
    Oursl afewh sawhi ateri ninfr magai thegaontof
     ntlaz resai gross areen conve edina onwit rsati endwh hafri ellin owast ogett ghimt
     butto hetop sover nofhi aised coatr.

Permutations by groups
of 5, 6, 7 and 8 letters
    Ytowa oneda ddayo rdsmi earpl nther mofan atfor saway sbusi anwho oungm kwast senec gandw