Author: Michel Houellebecq
Cites
- Bible (1)
- IN: Whatever (1994) Fiction, French
EPIGRAPH: The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
FROM: Bible, Romans XIII, 12, (100), Bible, NULL
- Honoré de Balzac (1)
- IN: Platform (2001) Fiction, French
EPIGRAPH: Plus sa vie est infâme, plus l'homme y tient; elle est alors une protestation, une vengeance de tous les instants.
(The more contemptible his life, the more a man clings to it; it thus becomes a protest, a retribution for every moment.)
FROM: Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, (1847), Book, France
- J. K. Huysmans (1)
- IN: Submission (2015) Fiction, French
EPIGRAPH: A noise recalled him to Saint-Sulpice; the choir was leaving; the church was about to close. 'I should have tried to pray,' he thought. 'It would have been better than sitting here in the empty church, dreaming in my chair -- but pray? I have no desire to pray. I am haunted by Catholicism, intoxicated by its atmosphere of incense and wax. I hover on its outskirts, moved to tears by its prayers, touched to the very marrow by its psalms and chants. I am thoroughly disgusted with my life, I am sick of myself but so far from changing my ways! And yet... and yet... if I am troubled in these chapels, as soon as I leave them I become unmoved and dry. In the end,' he told himself, as he rose and followed the last ones but, shepherded by the Swiss guard, 'in the end, my heart is hardened and smoked dry by dissipation. I am good for nothing.'
FROM: En route, (1895), Novel, France