Answerless Puzzle

[deepankars]

"How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all, and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study and think about it, you may find out, but i am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt, if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you. Who knows? Go to work and try your skill. Par is about half an hour."

[IndieSinger]

It doesn't contain the letter E (the most common letter in the English language).

I only needed to read the first six words. Got any difficult ones?

[bernardo]

It took me until the second line

(i.e. about one and a half seconds)

[Famous5]

A work which excludes a particular letter is called a lipogram. Perhaps the most famous example is a 50,000 word novel called 'Gadsby' by E V Wright. See www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby for the texr

[bernardo]

Another E-less novel is "La Disparition" which was translated into English as "A Void".

[thewillow]

George Perec's La Disparition is another.

[thewillow]

P.S.  Pity he has four Es in his name.

[grannyb]

Well, I couldn't guess, and I had to look up the answer, so well done deepankars! 

Incidentally, not only did George Perec's La Disparition not contain any E's in its original edition, but Gilbert Adair managed a successful translation into English without adulterating it with E's either. It wasn't easy, though.  (sorry!)

 

[AngelusRIP]

I quickly scanned it, and realised in 2-3 seconds without actually reading any of the text. still a good one tho.

[catfather]

 I figured it out in about 30 seconds...before I read the answer.  But, then, I had seen either the same paragraph or a similar one before, so I guess it doesn;t count

[mother25]

Thank you for this one! I took about 30 seconds to spot it, but it is a great puzzle.