The Fifty Year Sword is a novella written by Mark Z. Danielewski. Only 1,000 first edition English books were released. 51 of those copies are signed in marker with a "Z" (varying in color and number to coincide with the 5 colored quotation marks that signify different speakers in the text), while the first copy is signed "Mark Danielewski" in ink. A second English edition of 1,000 was released in October 2006. A trade edition--slightly revised--was published by Pantheon in October 2012.
The Fifty Year Sword uses strange formatting and colors throughout the book, much like Danielewski's previous work, House of Leaves. However, unlike House of Leaves which only contained three colors (blue, red, and purple), The Fifty Year Sword contains 5 colors which are used on quotation marks. The colors indicate which of 5 characters is speaking at the moment, according to the introduction of the book.
Read more about The Fifty Year Sword: Plot Summary, Live Performance
Famous quotes containing the words fifty, year and/or sword:
““... Keep cold, young orchard. Good-by and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“‘He hardly drinks a pint of wine,
And that, I doubt, is no good sign.
His stomach too begins to fail:
Last year we thought him strong and hale,
But now, he’s quite another thing;
I wish he may hold out till spring.’
Then hug themselves, and reason thus;
‘It is not yet so bad with us.’”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“...and every sword was against the other, so that there was very great confusion.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 14:20.