French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Leclair, Dans les rouleaux du temps. Ce que nous fait la littérature
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Dans les rouleaux du temps - Ce que nous fait la littérature
By Bertrand Leclair
Published on: September 28, 2011
Publisher: Flammarion
ISBN: 978-2-08-125346-9
EAN: 9782081253469
Number of pages: 315 pages
Retail price: €22.00
"What does literature do to us, what does it matter to us, here and now, collectively and individually?" Aimed at questioning the powers of literature, this essay is built upon a conviction that still needed testing: the books that have profoundly shaped us know a great deal about us—perhaps even more than we know about ourselves.
They harbor all that we no longer know how to perceive amidst the grueling routine of daily life, everything that we prefer to bury under "conventional knowledge" out of conformity and habit. Conceived as the chronicle of an experience, Dans les rouleaux du temps draws upon the works of Céline and Mallarmé, Aragon and Cixous, as well as On the Road and The Story of O. Like a river reaching its estuary, it inevitably flows into the Proustian experience: In Search of Lost Time truly stands as "the" book of books, the book that delivers—and what does it deliver, if not literature, and therefore life itself?
The Author:
Bertrand Leclair is a novelist and essayist; his publications include Théorie de la déroute (Verticales), Petit éloge de la paternité (Gallimard), and, in 2010 with Flammarion, L'invraisemblable histoire de Georges Pessant.
Bertrand Leclair engages with enduring questions surrounding the role and impact of literature in contemporary life. Conceived as the chronicle of an experience, the volume draws upon works such as those of Céline, Mallarmé, Aragon, and Cixous, as well as On the Road and The Story of O, building upon a conviction that significant texts harbor what we often bury under conventional knowledge and the routine of daily life.
The discussion ultimately flows into the Proustian experience, treating In Search of Lost Time as the book of books that delivers literature and life itself. The author, Bertrand Leclair, is a novelist and essayist whose previous publications include Théorie de la déroute, Petit éloge de la paternité, and L'invraisemblable histoire de Georges Pessant. Readers interested in contemporary French literary essays may find it relevant.