Novel
Le Rossignol se tait à l'aube
Not translated into English
Elsa Triolet · 1970
Synopsis
About ten men and a single woman, all having reached the evening of their lives, meet for an evening that extends into the night, in a large room opening onto a park. They are the survivors of the same youth of artists and look back together on this shared past, of which they keep some memories and have lost others. The narrator, the only woman present, listens, remembers and at times slips into dreams, so that the boundary between waking and sleep becomes uncertain.
Context
The novel appeared with Gallimard in January 1970, a few months before the death of its author, and it is the last she published. It takes place over a single night, the one on which eleven elderly guests, ten men and one woman, who share a youth as artists, meet again. The narrative mingles past with present, and reality with dream. The author described it as an opera-novel, and critics have noted its almost musical construction, close to a prose poetry.
Who it is for
A short novel without a continuous plot, in which dreams and memories merge; one must accept not always knowing what is taking place.
Prizes and reception
The book is still available from Gallimard, in the Blanche series in which it had appeared in 1970.
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