The Memoranda of Jules Barbey d‘Aurevilly History, meteorology, geography of feelings

It would be overly simplistic to focus only on the meteorology in the Memoranda: the diarist is obsessed with le temps in all its forms. It is first, of course, the passage of time: work and days unfold in infinite melancholy. Then it is the weather. But above all, Barbey’s “empaysement” lies both in the return of memories and in the atmospheric variations that, inextricably intertwined, in his eyes constitute the charm of Normandy.