ABSTRACT
The author of La Belle Lurette, Le Tout sur le tout and Peau d'ours is, indeed, much more than a coiner of phrases and striking book titles. He represents a fascinating intersection of several literary traditions and occupies a key, if not fully recognized, position among the French writers who rose to prominence just before the Second World War. The first thirty-odd years of his life thus comprise all the miseries experienced by the countless social marginals struggling to get by during the Great Depression. His reminiscing walks through the 14th arrondissement likewise attach him to a long literary tradition of Parisian "strollers", although his tone of course differs from that associated with Leon-Paul Fargue, Jean Follain, Charles-Albert Cingria or, more recently, Jacques Reda. Calet is indeed a pessimistic author, but nonetheless one whose despair has a secret inside lining: tenderness.
