# A Novel Without Dialogue **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104 "2011-11-26T01:49:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/41 "2011-11-30T01:16:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “History Lesson” (about aliens in the distant future trying to understand a Disney cartoon short) also have no dialogue IIRC. The Historian has lots of dialogue when speaking to the reptilian scientists about the filmstrip. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/42 "2011-11-30T04:48:57Z")
“He Done Her Wrong” by Milt Gross. It’s a novel (of sorts). ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/43 "2011-11-30T05:07:43Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > What about short stories? I believe that Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Curse” includes no dialogue, though it does include the text of an inscription. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but [Jerusalem’s Lot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem%27s_Lot), the short story by Stephen King, consists of letters written to a friend, with the dialogue being merely written, as in relayed to someone. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/44 "2011-11-30T05:45:23Z")
I don’t remember **Watership Down** or **Jonathan Livingston Seagull** well enough to remember if they contain dialogue as such. There was a Conan short story–“Red Sails” or “Red Sun” or something in the “Red” line–with little or no dialogue, at least in the comics adaptation. Artists used to hate it when Roy Thomas would just send them a Xerox of a few pages from the old Robert E. Howard novels instead of a written plot breakdown, and I strongly suspect this story was an instance of this happening. Another short story, dimly remembered: Jack London describing an arctic winter where the prospector endangered his life by getting his feet wet. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/45 "2011-11-30T06:19:11Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Another short story, dimly remembered: Jack London describing an arctic winter where the prospector endangered his life by getting his feet wet. You mean “[To Build a Fire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Build_a_Fire)”? I haven’t read it since elementary school, but the wiki summary says there are other characters who warned our firestarter at the beginning of the story. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/46 "2011-11-30T06:42:54Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > [Raptor Red](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_Red) might fit the bill… Looks very interesting, I’ll look that one up for me to enjoy. Thanks again everyone. I’ll make a list of these for the writing group as there’s now more than I’ll get through over the holidays (three weeks, from 12/16 - Yay!) Please carry on, even if these do contain speech, it’s good to have new suggestions. I have both Watership Down and JLS, **Krokodil** , and they’re very chatty for beasties without vocal cords! ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/47 "2011-11-30T10:26:21Z")
While Doris Lessing’s _The Sirian Experiments_ does - eventually - have dialog, it takes her about 90 pages to get to that stage, and the whole book is written very much like a sociological report. So that might be another interesting one for your group. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/48 "2011-11-30T11:02:22Z")
**Raptor Red** by Robert Bakker. > **[Raptor Red](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_Red)** > > Raptor Red is a 1995 American novel by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker. The book is a third-person account of dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period, told from the point of view of Raptor Red, a female Utahraptor. Raptor Red features many of Bakker's theories regarding dinosaurs' social habits, intelligence, and the world in which they lived. > The book follows a year in Raptor Red's life as she loses her mate, finds her family, and struggles to survive in a hostile environment. Bakker drew insp... ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/49 "2011-11-30T12:03:37Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > You mean “[To Build a Fire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Build_a_Fire)”? I haven’t read it since elementary school, but the wiki summary says there are other characters who warned our firestarter at the beginning of the story. Yep, that’s the one. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/50 "2011-11-30T15:06:25Z")
I was going to suggest _Day of the Jackal_, but thinking about it there must have been some dialogue at the beginning, when the cop character was roughing up some witnesses. If there is dialogue in _Last and First Men_, it’s probably in the opening segment, when the frame story (this book is a history of the future that is being telepathically transmitted back in time by the Nth (I forget what N was) Men) is established. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/51 "2011-11-30T18:55:23Z")
Was there any actual dialogue in [_Up the Down Staircase_?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_the_Down_Staircase) As I recall, and the Wikipedia article confirms, the whole novel is made up of written objects such as memos, notes, essays, lesson plans, letters, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/52 "2011-11-30T19:15:39Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Was there any actual dialogue in [_Up the Down Staircase_?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_the_Down_Staircase) As I recall, and the Wikipedia article confirms, the whole novel is made up of written objects such as memos, notes, essays, lesson plans, letters, etc. Some of the letters do recall dialogue. > [@Superdude](#): > > It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but [Jerusalem’s Lot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem%27s_Lot), the short story by Stephen King, consists of letters written to a friend, with the dialogue being merely written, as in relayed to someone. King is a master at writing stories about a single person all alone–Misery, Gerard’s Game, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Running Man, Blaze, and especially Survivor Type, which has very little dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/53 "2012-01-01T22:42:15Z")
It’s a short story, not a novel, but Poe’s _The Pit and the Pendulum_ has no direct dialogue, and only a tiny bit of implied dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/54 "2012-01-02T00:45:15Z")
Thanks, will add that one to the list. Really liked the line: _I saw them fashion the syllables of my name, and I shuddered, because no sound succeeded._ ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/55 "2012-01-02T01:03:31Z")
_Fair and Tender Ladies_ by Lee Smith is told completely thru letters written by a single character. I can’t remember if she quotes anyone in the letters. One impressive thing was the way the writing improves from the first letters by an eight-year-old to the final ones by a grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104/56 "2012-01-02T01:54:38Z")
Jerzy Kosinkski’s The Painted Bird is often said to contain no dialogue. It’s surely 99% dialogue free, but I seem to remember the last line in the book actually being dialogue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-novel-without-dialogue/604104.md?page=2)