О книге: 2011 год / Great admirer of the philosopher, Sibylle Lewitscharoff, in this novel which multiplies the allusions to Lions, especially evokes the thinker in his work office. We could speak in this case of a moral portrait of a modern saint who, like Saint Jerome (the comparison is explicit), devoted his existence to study in the solitude of his retirement. In the novel, the metaphor becomes reality, the lion of Jerome's legend materializes in his office, therefore becoming present but while remaining, like reality, impossible to reach. The 5 chapters entitled The Lion (numbered from I to V) constitute, with the Coca-Cola and Egypt chapters, an intellectual biography of Blumenberg and a beautiful tribute to a revered master. Parallel to this portrait, in chapters which are almost independent, the author wanted to construct a sort of philosophical and moral tale, about the relationship of an individual with a master (illustrated by 5 examples). In the small town of Munster, in the 1980s, four students follow the brilliant courses - decisive for the destiny of each of them - of the famous philosopher. The first (and the only one of the four to have a brief interview with the professor), Gerhard (chap. Optatus, Dimanche, The Angel Announces and Heilbronn), studious and brilliant, will himself become a professor of philosophy. His girlfriend, Isa, worried and quite elated, is secretly tormented by a morbid passion for the master, which will lead her to suicide (chap. Optatus, Dimanche and N 255431800). Their friend, Richard, dreams of the master as a savior and, disappointed, goes to pursue his childhood dream of salvation in the Amazon (a story of dark beauty, in 3 consecutive chapters, Richard, etc.). Hansi, for his part, transforms the master's teaching into delirium and slowly sinks into madness (chap. Hansi and Addendum). A fifth character with a strong character, the nun Mehliss (chap. Universal Concern), also recognizes Blumenberg's superiority, but intuitively (she is the only one to see the lion), without knowing anything about the philosopher. The whole novel is contained in the story of the existence of these different characters (with contrasting but independent destinies, obeying only an internal logic of each character) from the day of their meeting with the philosopher until their death... and even then further, in an afterlife explicitly inspired by Beckett where the last chapter brings them all together, in the company of Blumenberg. Born in April 1954, Sibylle Lewitscharoff is the author of a rich and recognized work in Germany. This title, for which he was awarded several prizes, is his first work to be translated into French..