What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?
“English
as She Is Spoke: The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and
English,” by Pedro Carolino, first published in America in 1883, with an
introduction by Mark Twain. As Twain puts it, “Nobody can add to the
absurdity of this book,” and indeed it is ridiculous — a guide to
English written by someone who had not the slightest grasp of the
language. More than a hundred pages filled with such sentences as: “You
have there a library too many considerable, it is a proof your love for
the learnings” or “Nothing is more easy than to swim; it do not what
don’t to be afraid of.” The book is pure Dada, and as Twain writes, “its
immortality is secure.”
Paul Auster in a New York Times interview
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