Paroles d'un solitaire by Louis de Robert
QR code
Paroles d'un solitaire by Louis de Robert is a collection of personal essays and reflections written in the early 20th century. It meditates on solitude, aging, illness, nature, death, and the craft of writing, blending lyrical observation with autobiographical recollection. The narrator—a middle-aged invalid who has chosen seclusion—finds meaning in quiet routines, friendship, reading, and the play of seasons, while offering portraits from the literary world. The result is an intimate, humane
notebook of a life pared to essentials. The opening of the work moves from a tender dedication to a friend into a first-person meditation by a man of fifty who has shed ambition for the pleasures of thought, garden light, and silence. He reflects on the deceptive gifts of destiny, the sweetness and brevity of autumn, and the necessity of death, doubting personal immortality while finding continuity in posterity and in the persistence of inspiration. Ill health and nervous torment curb his powers, so he leans on small rituals—listening to birds, being read Plutarch by his cousin, and watching sun and clouds—to keep his inner life alive. He imagines a future poet sensing his presence in the house he built, recalls a nightingale singing through wartime, and accepts that long convalescence taught him resilience. Anecdotes sketch writers and leaders—admiring discipline learned from Loti, kindness and vulnerability in Rostand, the sudden death of Pierre Curie—and yield to scenes of a Spanish cloister where time’s steady tick deepens his sense of mortality. Memories of a harsh schoolmaster and secret youthful reading lead to his first novels and a wry encounter with that same master, while sympathetic vignettes of an agile swallow, a trusting toad, and a tame robin enlarge his theme of fellowship with humble creatures. Brief notes on misjudged motives, the limits of truth-telling, and an unfinished story about Zola’s creative swings close this initial section. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Download for free
For your e-reader or reading app — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Calibre etc.
Kindle → Use Send-to-Kindle
Kobo, Nook etc. → Transfer via USB
Phone, tablet or computer → Open in a reading app
Other formats & older devices
There may be more files related to this item.
About this eBook
| Author | Robert, Louis de, 1871-1937 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 24021431 |
| Title | Paroles d'un solitaire |
| Original Publication | Paris: Albin Michel, 1924. |
| Credits | Laurent Vogel, Robin Tremblay and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica)) |
| Language | French |
| LoC Class | PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Subject | French fiction -- 20th century |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78518 |
| Release Date | Apr 21, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 265 downloads in the last 30 days. |
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!