Life A User's Manual

Life Instruction Manual ( La Vie mode d' emploi ) is a well-respected as a masterpiece novel of the writer Georges Perec, the 1978 in France and 1982 in German, translated by Eugen Helmle, appeared.

General

The very extensive novel consists of six parts, the chapters are numbered consecutively from 1-99. Preceding the text is the following quote from the novel Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne: "Look with both eyes, look ". This is followed by an introduction to the novel and the text follows an epilogue. An appendix consisting of a people and subjects, the directory: " Chronological evidence ", the directory " memory of some of the stories told in this work stories ", a Post- Scriptum and a table of contents decides the book in the German edition comprises 894 pages.

On the surface, describing the 99 chapters a house, its rooms, its current and former residents and different detailed parts of their life stories to a fictitious address in Paris, Rue Simon- Crubellier 11 offer the most only a few pages long chapter a section at a description of the various rooms of the dwellings and their inhabitants, the staircase, or basements. The chapters are arranged so that they form a picture of Springer problem in chess. Shown are also the interdependence of the inhabitants with each other.

Content

Although it is said of this novel, which also carries the name " novels " in the subtitle that you could read it either in the traditional manner from start to finish, but also from each x - arbitrary point, there is, paradoxically, a kind of center of the action.

In this center, the very wealthy residents, the Englishman Bartlebooth stands with his plan of life, which extends over 50 years. Of this he used the first ten forward to learning the art of watercolor painting with the painter and house roommate Valene. After creation Bartlebooth embarks on a 20-year trip around the world, prepared by his faithful butler Smautf, who also accompanied him. During this time he painted 500 watercolors of harbor views. The watercolors are sent after completion to Paris in the Rue Simon- Crubellier 11, where they are raised by Gaspard Winckler on wood and processed into complex puzzles. After returning from his trip, Bartlebooth will assemble the puzzle again. Each completed puzzle is then defined by means of a special adhesive solution sufficiently so joined by another roommate, Georges Morellet that the timber can be removed and the original watercolor is emerged again. Following this, the watercolor is returned to its origin port where it is immersed exactly 20 years after the date of its formation in seawater and thus extinguished. Remain in paper only hardly visible traces left by the layout and the joining, and the paper is returned to Bartlebooth. Meanwhile intention of 50 years to leave no trace efforts is thwarted that Winckler's puzzles are getting harder and that Bartlebooth getting worse with age looks until he goes blind. As Bartlebooth dies on June 23, 1975, he limps his schedule after 16 months. He dies at the age of 439 puzzles, a puzzle piece with W-shape in the hand, with the only missing piece of the puzzle draws the " almost perfect silhouette of X".

Expenditure

• La Vie mode d' emploi. Novel ( later edition: sometimes with a comma between and Vie mode) Hachette, Paris 1978 ISBN 2-01-005490-3; and more (a total of 7 edition until 2004 ) Recent: France Loisirs, Paris 2004 ISBN 2-7441-7494-7 Cahier des Charges de La Vie mode d' emploi ed. Hans Hartje et al (Fr. ) CNRS Editions, 2003 ISBN 2-271-05087-1 & Zulma, Paris 1995: ISBN 2-84304-205-4 & 2003: ISBN 2-909031-32-2 ( Perec lists in which he set forth the particulars that in the individual rooms systematically occur ) See also links.

German

• Life Instructions 1st Edition 1982, Zweitausendeins, ISBN 3-86150-911-3 to 2009: 7 editions. 7th edition paperback, ISBN 978-3-86150-911-0 The 4th edition (2002) contains a puzzle ( a certificate from Perec idea) and a booklet of the translator, with additional materials, including excerpts from an interview with Gabriel Perec Simony via DLG in German

Other

• Dutch: Het leven een gebruiksaanwijzing Übers Edu Berger. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 2006 (Series: Modern klassiek )
• English: Life. A User's Manual. ( Fictions. ) Translator's David Bellos, several ed between 1985 and 2000

Further use of motifs from DLG

• Multi -media project about the fictional rue Simon- Crubellier in which the house stands. The project aims to approach the question: Can something unreal be real that you will look for it? (English ) With the help of Marcel Bénabou of Oulipo.
• Andreas Winterer: Cosmo pollite rinds, 2000 ISBN 3-929303-15-9 Kühbach, lists in its pseudo - crime Blödel book a cape. "Planet cellulite, Rue Simon- Crubellier No. 11 ". The puzzle is getting bigger, so to speak.