Time and Félix de Vandenesse: Notes on the Opening Lines of Le Lys dans la vallée

The aim of the article is to show that Félix de Vandenesse's narrative is much less undisciplined and artless than some critics have claimed. The opening of the narrative proper is a witness to a conflict in Félix between art and life in which art is the victor. Félix the artist creates from the outset a generalized, ubiquitous present (tense and time) that denies the past and eliminates the future. As in the later lily metaphor, time is transcended but also destroyed in a defiant gesture that elates Félix but also traps him in his own creation. (ONH)