About the book: 2005 / "The Castle of Argol" is the first novel by Julien Grac (b. 1909), one of the most sophisticated French writers of the 20th century. The author himself defined his novel as a “demonic version” of Wagner’s opera “Parsifal” and at the same time a “tribute of respect and gratitude” to the “mighty miracles” of Gothic novels and the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The action of the novel takes place in the romantic space of a secluded castle, cut off from the world. Heroes, torn from the usual flow of time, live in anticipation of an unknown fate, the secret dictates of which they readily accept.