Novel
Ghost Light
Le Feu follet
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle · 1931
Synopsis
Alain Leroy, thirty, a former soldier, has spent years without purpose and has sunk into heroin dependence. He is leaving a nursing home where he has just undergone a cure. Back in Paris, he goes to see his old friends one by one, hoping to renew ties with them, and fails to establish a real bond with any of them.
Context
The novel was published by Gallimard in 1931. Its character is inspired by the Dadaist poet Jacques Rigaut. The author depicts in it the decadence and loss of bearings of part of French society after 1918. Louis Malle made a film of it in 1963, with Maurice Ronet, and Joachim Trier transposed the story to present-day Oslo in 2011. In English, the book appeared under the title The Fire Within in 1965, then Will O' the Wisp in 1966.
Who it is for
A short novel, in a dry style, where the gaze turned on all the characters, the narrator included, remains without complacency.
Prizes and reception
Often read through Louis Malle's film, the novel was retranslated into English in 2021 under the title Ghost Light.
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