As always with this author, there is no plot, no real history and even then, not really ending (pirouette curious that the conclusion), but digressions, reveries, which spin metaphors tangent, and often wonderful (not always though, or else it is I who am being drowsy have enjoyed). The hero is called Furne (for typographical reasons explained by the conclusion) is likely siphoned Zeller and convinced that the professor has no other purpose than to help him write his treatise to improve the situation current. We meet his comrades (employees) of pleasant digressions and phrases like "one innocuous gesture to recreate a whole era, the Middle Ages unwisely mentioned by Marpon suddenly rises from the depths of the soil, massive and embattled, but in his Clara finery was no longer listening Fool prostrate at his feet, which consists of a viola d'amore allusive couplets full of roses fade and women who dare not "(Oh beautiful chiasm) The sentences are of such elegance that we sometimes want to read aloud. On the merits, one might think that the novels Devos would have liked to write, there is this very fancy, this absolute contempt for the narrative conventions with top masters in Chevillard. (Another common drawback in this author, some somewhat narcissistic passages may cause irritation.)
