I dedicate this, my first novel, to Roger Martin du Gard in token of profound friendship A. G....

“The time has now come for me to hear a step in the passage,” said Bernard to himself. He raised his head and listened. Nothing! His father and elder brother were away at the law-courts; his mother pa...

“The time has now come for me to hear a step in the passage,” said Bernard to himself. He raised his head and listened. Nothing! His father and elder brother were away at the law-courts; his mother pa...

Monsieur Profitendieu was in a hurry to get home and wished that his colleague Molinier, who was keeping him company up the Boulevard St. Germain, would walk a little faster. Albéric Profitendieu had ...

Olivier had got into bed to receive his mother, who was in the habit of coming every evening to kiss her two younger sons good night before they went to sleep. He might have got up and dressed again t...

No, it was not to see his mistress that Vincent Molinier went out every evening. Quickly as he walks, let us follow him. He goes along the Rue Notre Dame des Champs, at the further end of which he liv...

Lilian half sat up and put the tips of her fingers on Robert’s chestnut hair. “Take care, my dear. You are hardly thirty yet and you’re beginning to get thin on the top. Baldness wouldn’t be at all be...

Bernard has had an absurd dream. He doesn’t remember his dream. He doesn’t try to remember his dream, but to get out of it. He returns to the world of reality to feel Olivier’s body pressing heavily a...

The sun, already high in the heavens, caresses Vincent’s bare foot on the wide bed, where he is lying beside Lilian. She sits up and looks at him, not knowing that he is awake, and is astonished to se...

Edouard, as he sits in the Paris express, is reading Passavant’s new book, The Horizontal Bar, which he has just bought at the Dieppe railway station. No doubt he will find the book waiting for him wh...

We should have nothing to deplore of all that happened later if only Edouard’s and Olivier’s joy at meeting had been more demonstrative; but they both had a singular incapacity for gauging their credi...

The sun woke Bernard. He rose from his bench with a violent headache. His gallant courage of the morning had left him. He felt abominably lonely and his heart was swelling with something brackish and ...

Nov. 1st.⁠—A fortnight ago⁠ ⁠… —it was a mistake not to have noted it down at once. It was not so much that I hadn’t time as that my heart was still full of Laura⁠—or, to be more accurate, I did not w...

Nov. 2nd.⁠—Long conversation with Douviers. We met at Laura’s parents’, and he left at the same time as I and walked across the Luxembourg Gardens with me. He is preparing a thesis on Wordsworth, but ...

Nov. 8th.⁠—Old Monsieur and Madame de la Pérouse have changed houses again. Their new apartment, which I had never seen so far, is an entresol in the part of the Faubourg St. Honoré which makes a litt...

It was with Laura’s letter, which Edouard had inserted into his journal, that Bernard’s reading came to an end. The truth flashed upon him; it was impossible to doubt that the woman whose words rang s...

“I was afraid your brother hadn’t delivered my message,” said Robert on seeing Olivier come into the room. “Am I late?” he asked, coming forward timidly and almost on tiptoe. He had kept his hat in hi...

Vincent’s education, which had been materialistic in tendency, prevented him from believing in the supernatural⁠—which gave the demon an immense advantage. The demon never made a frontal attack upon V...

“I should take more interest in animals if I were less interested in men,” Robert had said. And Vincent had replied: “Perhaps you think them too different. Every single one of the great discoveries in...

Two o’clock. Lost my suitcase. Serves me right. There was nothing in it I cared about but my journal. But I cared about that too much. In reality, very much amused by the adventure. All the same, I sh...

Monday My dear old Olivier, First I must tell you that I’ve cut the bachot. I expect you understood as much when I didn’t turn up. I shall go in for it next October. An unparalleled opportunity to go ...

Monday My dear old Olivier, First I must tell you that I’ve cut the bachot. I expect you understood as much when I didn’t turn up. I shall go in for it next October. An unparalleled opportunity to go ...

I have had no difficulty in finding little Boris. The day after our arrival, he appeared on the hotel terrace and began looking at the mountains through a telescope which stands outside, mounted on a ...

Notwithstanding first appearances, and though each of them did his best, Uncle Edouard and Bernard were only getting on together fairly well. Laura was not feeling satisfied, either. How should she be...

“I wanted to ask you, Laura,” said Bernard, “whether you think there exists anything in this world that mayn’t become a subject of doubt.⁠ ⁠… So much so, that I wonder whether one couldn’t take doubt ...

I am beginning to catch sight of what I might call the “deep-lying subject” of my book. It is⁠—it will be⁠—no doubt, the rivalry between the real world and the representation of it which we make to ou...

Dear Old Fellow⁠— I must first tell you that I have passed my bachot all right. But that’s of no importance. A unique opportunity came in my way of travelling for a bit. I was still hesitating; but af...

The traveller, having reached the top of the hill, sits down and looks about him before continuing his journey, which henceforward lies all downhill. He seeks to distinguish in the darkness⁠—for night...

When we are in possession of a few more local monographs⁠—then, and only then, by grouping their data, by minutely confronting and comparing them, we shall be able to reconsider the subject as a whole...

Sept. 22nd.⁠—Hot; bored. Have come back to Paris a week too soon. My eagerness always makes me respond before I am summoned. Curiosity rather than zeal; desire to anticipate. I have never been able to...

Sept. 28th.⁠—I found Rachel standing at the door of the big classroom on the ground floor. Two servants were washing the boards. She herself had a servant’s apron on and was holding a duster in her ha...

Sept. 29th.⁠—Visit to La Pérouse. The maid hesitated before letting me in. “Monsieur won’t see anyone.” I insisted so much that at last she showed me into the drawing-room. The shutters were shut; in ...

The day was very hot. Through the open windows of the Vedels’ school could be seen the treetops of the Gardens, over which there still floated an immense, unexhausted store of summer. The first day of...

Olivier, who had returned to Paris the day before, arose that morning fresh and rested. The air was warm, the sky pure. When he went out, after his shave and his shower-bath, elegantly dressed, consci...

Those novelists deceive us who show the individual’s development without taking into account the pressure of surroundings. The forest fashions the tree. To each one how small a place is given! How man...

In the meantime Olivier, deeply disappointed at not having found his Uncle Edouard, and unable to bear his solitude, turned his thoughts towards Armand with a heart aching for friendship. He made his ...

It had been agreed then that Bernard and Edouard, after having dined together, should pick up Sarah a little before ten o’clock. She had delightedly accepted the proposal passed on to her by Armand. A...

Armand has lain down in his clothes. He knows he will not be able to sleep. He waits for the night to come to an end. He meditates. He listens. The house is resting, the town, the whole of nature; not...

“I think he will be glad to see you,” said Edouard to Bernard next morning. “He asked me this morning if you hadn’t come yesterday. He must have heard your voice, at the time when I thought he was unc...

Visit from Pauline. I was a little puzzled how to let her know, and yet I could not keep her in ignorance of her son’s illness. I thought it useless to say anything about the incomprehensible attempt ...

Bernard arrived early that morning. Olivier was still asleep. As on the preceding days, Bernard settled himself down at his friend’s bedside with a book, which allowed Edouard to go off guard, in orde...

Brought back Olivier’s things from Passavant’s. As soon as I got home, set to work on The Counterfeiters. My exaltation is calm and lucid. My joy is such as I have never known before. Wrote thirty pag...

Bernard was to experience that morning that for a nature as generous as his, there is no greater joy than to rejoice another being. This joy was denied him. He had just heard that he had passed his ex...

About ten o’clock, Bernard turned up at Edouard’s with a hand bag which was sufficient to contain the few clothes and books that he possessed. He had taken leave of Azaïs and of Madame Vedel, but had ...

Edouard took care to arrive at the pension before the boys came in. He had not seen La Pérouse since the beginning of the term and it was to him that he wanted to speak first. The old music master car...

That same evening, while Edouard was talking to his nephew George, Olivier, after Bernard had left him, received a visit from Armand. Armand Vedel was unrecognizable; shaved, smiling, carrying his hea...

It was only a month later that Boris heard of Bronja’s death from Madame Sophroniska, who came to see him at the pension. Since his friend’s last sad letter, Boris had been without news. Madame Sophro...

The next afternoon, the bell assembled all the boys in the classroom. Boris, Ghéridanisol, George and Philippe were seated on the same bench. Ghéridanisol pulled out his watch and put it down between ...

Without exactly pretending to explain anything, I should not like to put forward any fact which was not accounted for by a sufficiency of motive. And for that reason I shall not make use of little Bor...

Schoolboy’s slang for the baccalauréat examination. ↩ In English in the original. ↩ Robert here makes a pun impossible to translate. Dessalé (literally “unsalted”) is a slang expression meaning someth...