One of the great novels of 20th-century Europe, Roger Martin du Gard’s The Thibaults, has recently been reprinted in English translation by Bantam Books, with an introduction by Albert Camus. Little known in the U.S., The Thibaults consists of a large sequence of novels covering the span of European life between 1890 and the First World War. One of its most perceptive critics is the Italian writer Nicola Chiaromonte; below is a section of an extended study of Martin du Gard’s work.—EDS.

In my opinion, Les Thibault by Roger Martin du Gard is the last great novel in the classical nineteenth-century manner. But in the soberness of its style as well as in the apparent discontinuity of its composition (consisting of a series of separate episodes rather than an uninterrupted flow of narration), it shows more than a trace of twentieth-century sensibility. It is not my purpose here to analyze the artistic quality of the work; I take it for granted. A mediocre book could hardly provoke sustained intellectual interest or supply substantial matter for reflection. If, however, I call Les Thibault the last great novel of the nineteenth century it is for reasons that are not primarily aesthetic.