Georges Perec, La vie, mode d’emploi: roman [Life: A User’s Manual]

Natalie Berkman (Princeton University)

Ed. by Hugo Azerad, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), 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 1978

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The Novel(s)

La vie mode d’emploi (Life a User’s Manual, trans. David Bellos) is a 1978 novel, one of the best-known works by French author Georges Perec. The story tells of Englishman Percival Bartlebooth (a hybrid name that draws from Herman Melville’s Bartleby who famously preferred “not to”, and Valery Larbaud’s Barnabooth), an eccentric millionaire who devotes his life to an intricate but ultimately useless goal, meant to occupy the rest of his life and exhaust his entire fortune. He spends a decade learning the art of watercolors under the instruction of Valène, and then another 20 years traveling the world with his faithful servant Smautf, painting his own watercolor landscapes of ports. Upon completion, Bartlebooth has each painting cut into a puzzle by artisan Gaspard Winkler, then devotes...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2077 words

Citation: Berkman, Natalie. "La vie, mode d’emploi: roman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33165, accessed 06 July 2026.]

Georges Perec, La vie, mode d’emploi: roman [Life: A User’s Manual]

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback