Abbreviated Correspondence
The shortest correspondence in history took place in 1862.
Victor Hugo - famous for writing The Hunchback of Notre Dame - had gone on holiday following the publication of his great novel Les Miserables.
But Hugo could not restrain himself from asking how the book was doing. So he wrote the following letter to his publisher: “?”
His publisher was not to be outdone and replied fully in keeping with the truth: “!”
As The Guinness Book of Records says of the publisher’s reply, “the meaning was unmistakable”.
From The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders.
