A novel without a common letterSourced
Not region-specific · English meaning
Gadsby keeps E out of more than fifty thousand words
Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby uses over fifty thousand words without the letter E in its text. Common English words such as the and he are ruled out. This lipogram builds writing around an omission rather than an addition.
A very short word can become a major obstacle.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and reuse details
Lipogram · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-05