Jean d’Ormesson and the modern wanderings of Ahasverus

Abstract

By joining together legend and history, fiction and reality, the past and the present, d’Ormesson (re)creates the most diverse facts and situations with skill, humour and irony. Associating myths, legends, and historical overtones with the multiple avatars attributed to the legendary Wanderer, in the most varied periods, languages, and cultures, d’Ormesson arouses the reader’s curiosity and imagination, leading him on a delicious historical and cultural “tour”. His fluid and elegant writing, characterised by intertextuality and constant dialogue with other arts, approaches themes such as life, death, love, and time in a parallel between the Wanderer and humanity in their constant evolution. From popular allegory to exemplary Christian myth, ranging from guilt to consolatory wandering, from acceptance to revolt, attracting at times scorn and at others compassion, over the centuries, Ahasverus becomes in d’Ormesson a depository of his multiple metamorphoses. Heir to his own avatars, the mythical demystified Wanderer takes part in the modern narrative as a man who recognizes his limits and exposes his uncertainties.