Avec cet essai, d’un petit peu plus de 100 pages, découpé en courts chapitres, le magicien d’Ormesson règle tous les problèmes philosophiques de l’humanité. De la vie à la mort en passant par la joie, le progrès, le bonheur, la liberté, la pensée, le temps, la beauté, les nombres, la science ou la lumière… pour ne citer qu’eux. Il règle tout.

Un magicien, vous dis-je ! ( )

Last year, I was very charmed by a previous book by D’Ormesson (1925-2017), "Un jour je m'en irai sans en avoir tout dit", which despite its sometimes excessive phraseology managed to touch me. This booklet ('a guide for the wanderers/searchers'), must be the last book he wrote before his death, and it is something completely different: it’s a kind of lexicon of his thinking, in short entries, which contain all his wisdom about the world and life. It is a bit dry and short and therefore remains rather shallow, but as we are used from D’Ormesson it contains a lot of ‘bon mots’ and is written in a very melodic French.

What touched again is that, after all the themes of life, suffering, injustice, joy, pleasure, he finally comes to the theme of love. According to him, love is greater than any truth, and he is right. It is of course not surprising that he (again) ends with an outright creed, because D'Ormesson was a professing Christian, albeit at a certain distance from the (Catholic) church. As another reviewer wrote: this book is an elongated 'hosannah' to life. ( )

Au croisement entre littérature et philosophie, cet ouvrage apporte de grandes et belles pistes de réflexion. J'avais parfois l'impression de lire une vulgarisation de l'excellentissime Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus et à d'autres moments des conseils littéraires et une analyse simple et riche du monde dans lequel nous vivons. ( )