Le Secret

by Philippe Sollers

"Ce n'est pas tous les jours qu'on peut avoir entre les mains les confessions non trafiquées ou non réécrites d'un agent secret.Au contraire des fictions fantaisistes ou fantastiques qui sont données d'habitude en pâture à la crédulité du public, voici un livre de base, clair, simple, et qu'on espère aussi inquiétant qu'émouvant, aussi instructif que drôle.Le récit porte sur plusieurs points cruciaux de l'envers de l'histoire contemporaine : l'attentat, resté si mystérieux, contre le Pape, en 1981, à Rome ; les raisons profondes de la décomposition et de la recomposition de l'ancien équilibre du Mensonge et de la Terreur ; la redistribution, partout accélérée, des pouvoirs occultes ; la montée générale de la corruption, du crime organisé et du tout-marchandise (à commencer par le marché de la reproduction mécanique des corps humains).Un homme parle : on le voit dans sa vie intime sans cesse menacée ; affronté à ses supérieurs et souvent soupçonné par eux ; tentant de survivre dans la guerre implacable du Renseignement ; dévoilant enfin, avec une conviction étrange, les ressorts du monde violemment antinaturel dans lequel nous sommes désormais jetés."Philippe Sollers.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Philippe Sollers (born Philippe Joyaux) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the avant garde journal Tel Quel (along with the writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), published by Seuil, which ran until 1982. In 1982 Sollers then created the journal L'Infini published by Denoel which was later published under the same title by Gallimard for whom Sollers also directs the series.

Sollers was at the heart of the intense period of intellectual unrest in the Paris of the 1960s and 1970s. Among others, he was a friend of Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser and Roland Barthes. These three characters are described in his novel, Femmes (1983) alongside a number of other figures of the French intellectual movement before and after May 1968. From A Strange Solitude, The Park and Event, through "Logiques", Lois and Paradis, down to Watteau in Venice, Une vie divine and "La Guerre du goût", the writings of Sollers have often provided contestation, provocation and challenging.

In his book Writer Sollers, Roland Barthes discusses the work of Phillippe Sollers and the meaning of language.

Sollers married Julia Kristeva in 1967.

Reviews

[George Manuel]

Prea fantezista pentru mine la momentul acesta, abandonata dupa primele 40 de pagini.

[Elusive.Mystery · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading this book in its entirety, and as a native French speaker, I want to point out that I still don’t know what it was about, else than musings about such subjects as the Catholic Church and its involvement in politics, the international traffic in body parts, the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope Jean-Paul II’s life, the right to life, secretive political deal-makings carried out in the shadows, etc.
According to the back (written by the author), it is “a basic book, clear, simple…” (Huh?) Well, if that is the way Mr. Sollers defines is, I guess it must be, and the fault is mine. Despite a few brilliant moments, -particularly when T.E. Lawrence is quoted about guerilla war strategy, I wasn’t able to make sense of much of the book. Must be my lack in formal education, I guess. In French.