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=                         The_Enormous_Room                          =
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                            Introduction
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'The Enormous Room (The Green-Eyed Stores)' is a 1922 autobiographical
novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary
imprisonment in France during World War I.


                             Background
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Cummings served as an ambulance driver during the war. In late August
1917, his friend and colleague William Slater Brown (known in the book
only as 'B.') was arrested by French authorities as a result of
anti-war sentiments B. had expressed in some letters. When questioned,
Cummings stood by his friend and was also arrested.

While Cummings was in captivity at La Ferté-Macé, his father received
an erroneous letter to the effect that his son had been lost at sea.
The cable was later rescinded, but the subsequent lack of information
on his son's whereabouts left the elder Cummings distraught.

Meanwhile, Cummings and B. had the bad luck to be transported to La
Ferté only five days after the local commissioners in charge of
reviewing cases for trial and pardon had left, and the commissioners
were not expected back until November. When they finally did arrive,
they agreed to allow Cummings, as an official "suspect", a supervised
release in the remote commune of Oloron-Sainte-Marie. B. was ordered
to be transferred to a prison in Précigné. Before Cummings was to
depart, he was unconditionally released from La Ferté due to U.S.
diplomatic intervention. He arrived in New York City on January 1,
1918.


                               Novel
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Cummings thus spent over four months in the prison. He met a number of
interesting characters and had many picaresque adventures, which he
compiled into 'The Enormous Room.' The book is written as a mix
between Cummings's well-known unconventional grammar and diction and
the witty voice of a young Harvard-educated intellectual in an absurd
situation.

The title of the book refers to the large room where Cummings slept
beside thirty or so other prisoners. However, it also serves as an
allegory for Cummings's mind and his memories of the prison, such that
when he describes the many residents of his shared cell, they still
live in the "enormous room" of his mind.


                             Reception
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F. Scott Fitzgerald extended praise to the book, saying: "Of all the
work by young men who have sprung up since 1920 one book
survives--'The Enormous Room' by e e cummings ... Those few who cause
books to live have not been able to endure the thought of its
mortality."


                              Sources
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* Bloom, Harold, 'Twentieth-century American Literature', New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1985-1988. .


                           External links
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*
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8446  The Enormous Room] text on
Project Gutenberg
*


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enormous_Room