Fantasy, lightness, gravity. Here is a novel of a genre unknown in France, a comedy of manners and characters told by an admirer of P. G. Wodehouse and Marivaux. In The End of the World in Reginald, Thomas Hervouët twirls twenty-first century characters in an old castle in Touraine.
Let's start with the décor, which is more than a setting: a noble house of the seventeenth century surrounded by its park, meadows and woods from which sometimes arise peaceful deer. It is inhabited by a maturing couple in their fifties whose soul is tuned to the humble majesty of the place, but whose income is far below what its maintenance requires. Open guest rooms to replenish the coffers? For Réginald Le Vaillant, an honest notary by profession and a melancholic lord, this is out of the question. His conception of hospitality dates back to the time of King Arthur: a castle must be joyfully open "to any honorable person passing through the woods". We'il see...
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