Books Written Entirely Without the Letter 'E'

Picture this: you're sitting down to write a novel, but someone has stolen every 'e' from your keyboard. Most of us would give up before finishing the first page. Yet Ernest Vincent Wright completed an entire 50,000-word novel without using the most common letter in the English language. His 1939 work "Gadsby" stands as a monument to literary determination, though it reads somewhat like a Victorian gentleman clearing his throat for 267 pages.

The French took this constraint and transformed it into art. Georges Perec's "A Void" doesn't just avoid the letter 'e' – it's a darkly comic mystery where characters gradually notice something is missing from their world. The genius lies in how Perec makes the absence itself part of the story. When Gilbert Adair translated it into English (also without 'e'), he proved that linguistic acrobatics can survive the journey between languages.

Where Perec embraced the void, Mark Dunn filled it with humour. "Ella Minnow Pea" tells of an island where letters are literally falling off a monument – and being banned from use as they fall. As more letters disappear, the prose becomes increasingly creative and desperate. It's both a love letter to language and a warning about censorship, wrapped in wordplay so clever you'll find yourself reading passages aloud.

The experimental torch passes to unexpected hands with Iain M. Banks's "The Exeter Text", where the Scottish science fiction master tried his hand at lipogrammatic writing. Meanwhile, Canadian poet Christian Bök took constraint in the opposite direction with "Eunoia" – each chapter uses only one vowel. Chapter A is for Hans Arp, chapter E concerns Greek legend. It's hypnotic, maddening, and strangely beautiful.

Doug Nufer's "Never Again" adds another twist: no word appears twice. Every. Single. Word. Is. Unique. The result reads like a jazz improvisation, constantly moving forward, never repeating a phrase.

For newcomers to constrained writing, start with "Ella Minnow Pea" – Dunn eases you into the concept with wit and grace. Those who appreciate puzzles and wordplay should tackle "A Void" next, while poetry lovers will find "Eunoia" intoxicating. "Gadsby" and "Never Again" are for the truly committed, and "The Exeter Text" offers a fascinating glimpse of a beloved author working outside his comfort zone.

These books prove that creativity thrives under pressure. By removing options, these writers discovered new ways to tell stories, creating works that are as much about how they're written as what they say. They transform reading from passive consumption into active participation – you can't help but marvel at each carefully chosen word.