Etude 2 – The book of human folly

introduction

The second extract of the novel is about nathan's project , a book . He was searching something to do and to have a real goal which will motivate him .
Firstly we will focus on the theme of books , then we will discuss about Nathan's own project .

I. The theme of books

First, we can say that Nathan is someone who loves reading and the world of books is really important for him just like the author Paul auster who was earlier in contact with book and began to write at the age of 12 .
We can see in the whole novel that the theme is recurring : his favorite nephew ,Tom ,loves too books, he was writing too and he works in Harry brightman's bookshop .
After that we see Lucy , Aurora's daughter , who like reading too , children wants to play , but Lucy take a book and read it silenciously .
Harry brightman who became a friend of Tom and then of Nathan too ,have his own book shop .
We can also see that when he is saying l- « There was little method to my madness » ( follie / il n'y avait guère de méthode dans cette manie » this is reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet,a play in which prince Hamlet, faced with the murder of his father and political conspiracies pretends to be mad in order to oberve things around him and prepare his revenge. Listenning to Hamlet's speeches, his friend Polonius says that « there is method to his madness » who mean that through this folly there is a method in it

(Une pièce ou le prince Hamlet , face au meurtrier de son père et a la conspiration politique , prétend être hors de lui pour observer les choses autour de lui afin de préparé sa revanche.
Ecoutant son discours , son ami Polonius dit qu' « il y a une méthode pour sa follie »)

So we can say that the whole book turn around the theme of books , that's why when Nathan was looking for something to do interesting , of course he decided to write a book .

II. Nathan's own project

To begin , we can say that the title