Ruined cottages, vestiges, and shipwreck in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

This article considers the symbolic function of the “ruined cottages”, plant-covered, dematerialized, and demonumentalized, scattered throughout the work of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. These represent, along with the various “vestiges” that characterize the story of Paul et Virginie (shadows, echoes, inscriptions, traces. . . ), the border between two worlds, and temporal and spatial gaps linking past and future and allowing us to intuitively picture “the shoreless ocean of futurity”.