Abstract
La 628-E8 breaks with the conventional narrative rules and rejects the aesthetic legacy of the past. Octave Mirbeau dedicates this hybrid novel to Ferdinand Charron, the man who designed Mirbeau’s motorcar. The title of the novel comes from his car’s number plate. This innovative work is an example of Mirbeau’s literary modernity at the turn of the century. It is a mise en abyme of the Futurist aesthetic thanks to the speed of the car that establishes a new relationship to the world. Whereas Mirbeau makes a clean sweep of the past and praises speed and technology, he is not blinded by the myth of Progress and superman. He is indeed a humanist and still defends oppressed people. Finally, in this hybrid novel, based on emotions and non-linear narrative, he extends aesthetic reflections that he started considering in the press articles he made as an art critic. The novel, as a free-form, seems to be the best artistic medium through which Mirbeau can develop and apply his aesthetic vision, without theorizing.
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