
The novel follows Michel, a privileged young man whose life is upended by a sudden, life‑threatening illness. Confronted with his own fragility, he begins to question the values that have guided his comfortable existence—family expectations, social conventions, and the comfortable routines of his bourgeois world. As he recovers, Michel chooses to abandon the safety of his former life, seeking instead a raw, unfiltered experience of the world, even if it means breaking the rules that once defined him.
His journey takes him through intense friendships, a passionate but fleeting love, and a relentless pursuit of personal freedom. Along the way, Michel discovers both the exhilaration and the loneliness that accompany a life lived on his own terms. The narrative invites listeners to reflect on the tension between societal duty and the yearning for authentic self‑expression, offering a thoughtful meditation on the costs and rewards of living without moral compromise.
Language
fr
Duration
~3 hours (225K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
Paris: Mercure de France, 1928.
Credits
www.ebookgratuits.com and Laurent Vogel (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.)
Release date
2024-02-27
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1869–1951
A major French writer of the early 20th century, he explored desire, morality, freedom, and self-examination with unusual honesty. His novels, journals, and essays helped shape modern literature and earned him the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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