From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordRoman is a narrative genre and a comparison for a manner of reading.
- In JoubertThe reported Descartes reading instruction asks that a book first be read whole like a novel without strained attention.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves [Descartes.] as a source-editor identification.
- A place to beginNovel-like reading is compared with Joubert’s wished-for poem-like reading.
- English renderings
- novel; novels
Meaning
Roman is a narrative genre and a comparison for a manner of reading. Its use does not by itself imply triviality or falsehood.
Use in the book
The reported Descartes reading instruction asks that a book first be read whole like a novel without strained attention. Joubert’s answering wish chooses a poem for his own books. The contrast concerns the mode of reception, not simply whether one writes fiction. In the Greek/modern tragedy comparison, novel and poem supply another generic contrast, but the order of the pairs resists a neat point-for-point alignment; only the subsequent singing/speaking assignment is explicit. Lesage’s café-and-domino scene is an imagined manner of composition, not evidence of where the novels were written.
Places to read
- I, p. 242, entry 7, ¶1Novel-like reading is compared with Joubert’s wished-for poem-like reading.
- II, p. 526, entry 2, ¶1Novel and poem enter a qualified comparison between tragedies.
- II, p. 830, entry 12, ¶1Lesage’s novels receive a figurative scene of composition.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves [Descartes.] as a source-editor identification. It does not reverse novel and poem in the tragedy analogy to make the order conform to expectation, or turn “seem” in the Lesage passage into historical fact.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 242; II, pp. 526, 830.