ABSTRACT
Jean de la Ville de Mirmont has remained obscurely present in French letters ever since his death in 1914 at the age of 28, one of the first French soldiers to die in the First World War. Of course, one cannot justify an author's reputation on what he might have written, had he lived longer. The author's early death should not, of course, tempt one into ascribing to his work an unwarranted originality, stylistic accomplishment, or emotional power. In "Entretien avec le Diable", all the narrator desires, in exchange for his soul, is "a sight capable of enthusing for a mere ten minutes". Plot is depicted as an arbitrary construct; the logical, step-by-step progression of human action as an illusion. Surrealist and Dada writers employed similar techniques; one is also reminded of the "constraints" used more recently by members of the Oulipo group to organize the narrative progression of their fictions.
