« Tout cela est si noble que j'en crève », Albert Cohen

From the cohort of aristocratic characters to the posture of the Oriental prince adopted by the writer, the nobiliary imaginary appears as a central presence in the life and work of Albert Cohen. It is characterised by complexity, nobility being at once a desirable moral model and a contemptible social ambition. Only characters with a prophetic calling –like the writer– manage to separate the wheat from the chaff in this symbolic overloading.