Alain Robbe-Grillet, Le Voyeur [The Voyeur]

Craig Adams (University of Queensland)

Ed. by David Houston Jones, University of Exeter
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1955

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
- Nouveau Roman

Resources

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s second novel, Le Voyeur, originally entitled Le Voyageur, was published in 1955 and received much more attention than his first novel Les Gommes (1953). It managed to sell many more copies than Robbe-Grillet’s first novel and was more widely written about. The increased attention to Robbe-Grillet’s work was driven by the novel being awarded the Prix des critiques as well as by the praise it received from several important literary figures, including Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes and Jean Paulhan.

Although Robbe-Grillet is often seen as a difficult writer, many of the early novels are, at least on the surface, easily summarised. Le Voyeur centres around …

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867 words

Citation: Adams, Craig. "Le Voyeur". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 February 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25058, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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