The Biographical Dictionary Of Literary Failure

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A complete compendium of failed writers from A to Z, which is both tragic and darkly hilarious. The Biographical Dictionary Of Literary Failure is essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered about all the writers who never made it onto the shelves of a bookshop, and all the great writers and their works, who remain unknown. Meet Ernst Bellmer, the bibliophage. For Bellmer, the aesthetic act was not complete unless his words, once committed to paper, were then eaten. Unfortunately for him, he died of ink poisoning, and left no trace of his life's work.

Reviews

Rose writes with wit, playfulness and an impressive knowledge... An author to reckon with, one whom Borges and Max Beerbohm would have admired... We havent heard the last of C.D. Rose.
Washington Post

Nuanced... Though the vignettes are fictional, most are entertaining and all could serve as warnings to anyone thinking of taking up the literary life."
Wall Street Journal

An anthology that cleverly calls out the ways in which we dramatizeand idolizethe lives of authors, successful and not."
Huffington Post

A big success."
Daily Beast

This selection may appear to break the rules, but this hilarious 'dictionary' of literary may not be as non-fictional as you think. It helped inspire my new favorite life-negating maxim: fail worse and go out on bottom."
Flavorwire, 50 Best Independent Fiction and Poetry Books of 2014

Humorous, high-toned and absurd... It's a fun book."
Dallas Morning News

Spend an hour with it...for a bracing, mordant reminder of why almost nothing is really worth bothering with."
Paris Review, Staff Picks

One of Liberty Hardy's (RiverRun Bookstore) Must-Read Books from Indie Presses for 2014, on Book Riot

A mesmerizing and hilarious little book."
Flavorwire

Wonderful... A must read."
PopMatters

A Best Gift Book of 2014 in The Guardian (UK)

This gloriously delicious testament to efforts of the wordy kind that seem to have gone off the rails offers the literary shenanigans of some rather suspect authors."
BookTrib

[A] delightful compendium... The BDLF is a clever put-on, a brisk stroll...guided by Roses fastidious prose and copious literary references, but it is also a clarion for the infinite possibilities of literature."
Failure Magazine

A delightful account... Genius."
Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA)

This lovely brown book presents insights into 52 literary failurescollected by C D Rose and retold with both care and wit. Every single one made me laugh, and I dont just mean with schadenfreude or a dry resigned croak at the common fate of so many writers. As unlikely as it sounds, I found this book immensely cheering.
Mind and Language

A glorious alphabetical compendium of those who never achieved greatness.
Stuart Kelly, Books of the Year, The Scotsman (UK)

More a short story collection than a dictionary, this book is an homage to the many ways writers can fail... Failure. Of the most spectacular kind."
LitReactor

Offers us a shadow history of literature... Whether the subject is Icarus-like or more of a Walter Mitty, Roses writing is unfailingly sympathetic and inventive."
Workshy Fop

A series of clever (and occasionally hilarious) literary vignettes Rose makes highly literate and arcane references to a vast number of authors and literary theoreticians, and its great fun for the reader to become part of the game.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Taking long-form comedy to brave new heights Rose well utilizes that trick good writers have of including readers and making them feel smart."
Library Journal

Tongue is definitely in cheek here Each [writer] fail[s] better than the one before.
Booklist

"A page turner of the best sort of slow motion, train wreck sort of way... Give this petite compendium a read!"
Susan Mulder, Rejection Chronicles

"A wonderful book. At long last someone has invented these failures and given them their due. We owe C. D. Rose an incalculable debt."
Steve Hely, author ofHow I Became A Famous Novelist

"A funny look at literary legends who, for one reason or another, managed to fall into oblivion (or fail to get noticed in the first place). From authors leaving masterpieces on trains, to those who compulsively--and literally--eat their words, this book will get you thinking about losses to literature that we'll never get to hear about. Just don't eat this book, please. Or, if you must, buy another copy afterwards... and restrain yourself from eating that one, too."
Jen Campbell, author ofWeird Things Customers Say in BookshopsandThe Bookshop Book

Author Bio

C. D. ROSE was born in Manchester at the tail end of the 1960s. Since then, he has lived and worked in half a dozen different countries, but now resides in Norwich, in the east of England, where he went to do an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, six years ago. His story "Arkady who couldn't see and Artem who couldn't hear" was listed for the Sunday Times/EFG Bank award (the world's richest short story prize) in 2013, and he has been published in Granta. Ironically, a work about failure has turned out to be his greatest success.