Martial, a Character in a Novel? On Les Récits de la demi-brigade

A narrator-character in short stories, Martial is identified by Giono with Langlois, a character in a novel. In fact, he bears a set of traits characteristic of a nineteenth-century “romanesque”. However, as he does not evolve from one story to the next, he serves the game of the short story, which restarts a new game at every beginning. Giono, in the midst of the development of the “Nouveau Roman”, has fun, not without provocation, demonstrating that the character is not an “outdated notion”.