Michel Butor Centenary: Revisiting 'La Modification,' the Nouveau Roman Masterpiece
In 2026, Michel Butor, known as the "pape du Nouveau Roman," would celebrate his centenary, leading to a look back at his acclaimed 1957 work, La Modification. Butor, who passed away in 2016 just shy of his 90th birthday, was a prolific creator of essays, biographies, and collages, moving away from conventional bourgeois literature. He was instrumental in reshaping French literature alongside contemporaries like Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Claude Simon through innovative techniques and phenomenological realism. La Modification, which won the prix Renaudot and has been translated into twenty languages, tells the story of Léon Delmont, a married man contemplating his choice to abandon his wife on a train to Rome. The novel’s form mirrors classical tragedy, ending with a blend of sleep and awakening. The Minuit edition spans 313 pages and is priced at 9.90 euros.
Key facts
- Michel Butor would have turned 100 in 2026; he died in 2016 shortly before his 90th birthday.
- La Modification was published in 1957 as Butor's third of four novels and won the prix Renaudot.
- The novel has been translated into around twenty languages and is published by Les éditions de Minuit (1957/1980, 313 pages, 9.90 euros).
- Butor was a leading figure of the Nouveau Roman alongside Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Claude Simon, Nobel laureate in 1985.
- The protagonist Léon Delmont, a married Parisian father of four, directs the Paris office of Italian typewriter manufacturer Scabelli.
- The plot follows Delmont's Paris-Rome train journey to surprise mistress Cécile Darcella and leave his wife Henriette, a plan he abandons en route.
- The novel is narrated in the second-person plural, which challenged omniscient narration in French fiction.
- Specialist Marie-Claudette Kirpalani describes the Nouveau Roman as promoting phenomenological realism, deconstruction, fragmentation and a 'degree zero of writing.'
Entities
Artists
- Michel Butor
- Nathalie Sarraute
- Alain Robbe-Grillet
- Claude Simon
- Marie-Claudette Kirpalani
- Léon Delmont
- Cécile Darcella
- Henriette
- James Joyce
- Honoré de Balzac
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Institutions
- Les éditions de Minuit
- Nouveau Roman
- prix Renaudot
- prix Nobel de littérature
- Scabelli
- RFI
- Wikimedia Creative Commons
Locations
- Paris
- France
- Rome
- Italy
- Lucinges