The end of pastiche and end of History in the Histoire du Roi de Bohême et de ses sept châteaux

The Histoire du roi de Bohême et de ses sept châteaux is a “pastiche,” according to the book’s second title page, which draws its radical originality from this contradiction. In truth, Nodier is original in the same way as Rabelais, in that he imitates with the sole aim of creating a dream, which takes place in Bohemia. He also creates—far from the exercise of style suggested by a pure process of pastiche, and since the problem of genre is in this case a matter of genesis—a return to genesis through palingenesis.