SOURCE: La Bossiere, Camille R. “The Mysterious End of James De Mille's Unfinished Strange Manuscript.” Essays on Canadian Writing 27 (winter 1983-84): 41-54.

In the following essay, La Bossiere contends that De Mille did not leave A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder unfinished, but that the text simply “played itself … out,” a direct result of De Mille's comedic use of repetition in the novel.

                    As when we dwell upon a word we know                     Repeating, till the word we know so well                     Becomes a wonder, and we know not why. 

—Tennyson, “Launcelot and Elaine”

                    I sholde er this han fallen down for sleep, Althogh the slough had never been so deep. … 

—Chaucer, Prologue to “The Nun's Priest's Tale”

An idea is something that grows, buds, blossoms and ripens from the beginning to the end of a speech. It never halts, never repeats itself.

—Bergson, Laughter

I nearly called...