The finished man: an unpublished by Gerard Bessette

This article illustrates the need for a critical edition of Le libraire, a novel that was preceded by various drafts and unfinished novels that are now available in the Fonds Gerard Bessette at the BAnQ, most notably L'homme fini. Various passages of this unpublished novel clearly announce what will become the most famous novel by Gerard Bessette. Moreover, since Le libraire was originally published in Paris, the vocabulary and style were edited for French readers. A critical edition would allow the contemporary reader to become aware of these often significant variations.