Robert Pinget
Robert Pinget (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ pɛ̃ʒɛ]; 19 July 1919 – 25 August 1997) was a Swiss-born French novelist and playwright associated with the nouveau roman movement.
Also recorded as Robert André John Pinget
Robert Pinget

L'Express 1959-03-05: Vol 7 Iss 403 (p. 27) · Public domain
- Full name
- Robert André John Pinget.
- Born
- 1919. · Geneva.
- Died
- 1997. · Tours.
- Nationality
- Switzerland and France.
- Occupation
- novelist, playwright, lawyer, translator and writer.
- Movements
- Nouveau Roman.
- Education
- Beaux-Arts de Paris.
- Known for
- Someone.
- Honours
- Prix Femina, Rambert Award, Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL, Grand prix national des Lettres and Prix des Critiques.
- Languages
- French.
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Documentary summary
Robert Pinget (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ pɛ̃ʒɛ]; 19 July 1919 – 25 August 1997) was a Swiss-born French novelist and playwright associated with the nouveau roman movement.
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Note VALÉORINE
Robert Pinget (1919–1997) was a French and Swiss lawyer, novelist and playwright, among other activities. Born Robert André John Pinget in Geneva, the lawyer died in Tours.
Robert Pinget studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris. The lawyer was associated with Nouveau Roman.
Works include Someone. Languages used include French. Robert Pinget received Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL, Grand prix national des Lettres and Prix des Critiques, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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gnd · 16246518-X · wikidata · Q123389 · wikipedia · Robert Pinget
In this article
Life and work
Life and work
Robert Pinget studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris. The recorded working language is French. Works named in the authority record are Someone. Distinctions recorded are Prix Femina, Rambert Award, Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL and Grand prix national des Lettres.
Robert Pinget was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1919. After completing his law studies at the Collège de Genève and working as a lawyer for a year, he moved to Paris in 1946 to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied painting under Jean Souverbie. In 1951, he published his first novel, Entre Fantoine et Agapa. After publishing two other novels, but then having his fourth rejected by Gallimard, Pinget was recommended by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Samuel Beckett to Jérôme Lindon, head of Éditions de Minuit, where he published Graal Flibuste in 1956, and subsequently the rest of his work. He became a French citizen in 1960, and purchased a 16th-century house in Touraine where he spent the rest of his life. Scholars and critics have often associated his work with that of his friend Samuel Beckett, whom he met in 1955. He died of a stroke in Tours in 1997.
Adaptations
Adaptations
The Old Tune, Samuel Beckett's free translation of La Manivelle, was produced by Barbara Bray and broadcast on BBC Third Programme on 23 August 1960. In 1962, Germaine Tailleferre of Les Six set eleven of Pinget's poems in a song cycle entitled "Pancarte pour Une Porte D'Entrée" (roughly translated as "Handbill for an Entrance") for medium voice and piano, commissioned by the American Soprano and Arts Patron Alice Swanson Esty.
Novels
Novels
Entre Fantoine et Agapa (La Tour de Feu, 1951). Between Fantoine and Agapa, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1982) Mahu ou le Matériau (Robert Laffont, 1952). Mahu or The Material, trans. Alan Smith (Calder & Boyars, 1966; Dalkey Archive, 2005) Le Renard et la boussole (Gallimard, 1953). Graal Flibuste (Ed. de Minuit, 1956). Graal Flibuste, trans. Anna Fitzgerald (Dalkey Archive, 2014) Baga (Ed. de Minuit, 1958). Baga, trans. John Stevenson (Calder & Boyars, 1967; 1984) Le Fiston (Ed. de Minuit, 1959). Monsieur Levert, trans. Richard Howard (Grove, 1961); also as No Answer, trans. Richard N. Coe (Calder, 1961) L'Inquisitoire (Ed. de Minuit, 1962). The Inquisitory, trans. Donald Watson (Calder & Boyars, 1966; 1982; 2003) Quelqu'un (Ed. de Minuit, 1965). Someone, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1984) Le Libera (Ed. de Minuit, 1968). The Libera Me Domine, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1978) Passacaille (Ed. de Minuit, 1969). Recurrent Melody, trans. Barbara Wright (Calder & Boyars, 1975); republished as Passacaglia (Red Dust, 1978) Fable (Ed. de Minuit, 1971). Fable, trans. Barbara Wright (Calder, 1980) Cette voix (Ed. de Minuit, 1975). That Voice, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1982) L'Apocryphe (Ed. de Minuit, 1980). The Apocrypha, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1986) Monsieur Songe (Ed. de Minuit, 1982). Monsieur Songe, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1988) Le Harnais (Ed. de Minuit, 1984). The Harness (1988) Charrue (Ed. de Minuit, 1985). Plough (1988) L'Ennemi (Ed. de Minuit, 1987). The Enemy, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1991) Du Nerf (Ed. de Minuit, 1990). Be Brave, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1994) Cette Chose (1967; 1990). By Robert Pinget and Jean Deyrolle (editor) Théo ou Le temps neuf (Ed. de Minuit, 1991). Théo or The New Era, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1994) Tâches d'encre (Ed. de Minuit, 1997). Traces of Ink, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 2000) Mahu reparle (Ed. des Cendres, 2009) La Fissure, précédée de Malicotte-la-Frontière (Ed. MētisPresses, 2009) Jean Loiseau, in Histoires littéraires n° 40 (2010)
Plays
Plays
Lettre morte (Ed. de Minuit, 1959). Dead Letter (1963) La Manivelle (Ed. de Minuit, 1960). Bilingual edition with Samuel Beckett's free translation, The Old Tune Clope au dossier (Ed. de Minuit, 1961). Clope (1963) Ici ou ailleurs, Architruc, L'Hypothèse (Ed. de Minuit, 1961) Autour de Mortin (Ed. de Minuit, 1965). About Mortin (1967) Abel et Bela (Ed. de Minuit, 1971). Abel and Bela, trans. Barbara Wright (Red Dust, 1987) Identité (Ed. de Minuit, 1971) Paralchimie, suivi de Architruc, L'Hypothèse, Nuit (Ed. de Minuit, 1973) Un testament bizarre, et autres pièces (Ed. de Minuit, 1986). Includes: Un testament bizarre, Mortin pas mort, Dictée, Sophisme et sadisme, Le chrysanthème, Lubie De rien (1992). About Nothing (1989) L'Affaire Ducreux, et autres pièces (1995). Includes: L'Affaire Ducreux, De rien, Nuit, Le bifteck
Compilations in English
Compilations in English
Plays, Volume 1 (Calder, 1963). Includes: The Old Tune (trans. Samuel Beckett); Clope (trans. Barbara Bray); Dead Letter (trans. Barbara Bray). Plays, Volume 2 (Calder & Boyars, 1967). Includes: Architruc; About Mortin; The Hypothesis. Translations by Barbara Bray. Monsieur Songe (Red Dust, 1988). Also includes "The Harness" and "Plough". Translations by Barbara Wright. A Bizarre Will and Other Plays (Red Dust, 1989). Includes: A Bizarre Will; Mortin Not Dead; Dictation; Sophism and Sadism; The Chrysanthemum; Crazy Notion; Night; and About Nothing. Translations by Barbara Wright. Trio (Dalkey Archive, 2005). Includes: Between Fantoine and Agapa; That Voice; Passacaglia. Translations by Barbara Wright.
Interviews and works about Pinget
Interviews and works about Pinget
Robert Pinget: The Novel as Quest, by Robert Henkels, 1977. Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (includes an interview with R. Pinget, in French)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1919–1997
The full dated record · 4 entries
1919
Robert Pinget born at Geneva.
1963
Robert PInget: Plays: Volume I: The Old Tune/ Clope/ Dead Letter (1963) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1963
Robert PInget: Plays: Volume I: The Old Tune/ Clope/ Dead Letter digitised by Internet Archive.
1997
Robert Pinget died at Tours.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Geneva.
Birth place
Tours.
Death place
Awards and honors
1959: Prix Rambert, for Le Fiston 1965: Prix Femina, for Quelqu'un 1987: Grand prix national des Lettres
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Riding, Alan. Robert Pinget, 78, a Master Of the Nouveau Roman, Dies. The New York Times. 1997-09-12. 0362-4331.
- 2.Robert Pinget RED DUST BOOKS. 2016-11-07.
- 3.Jean-Michel Place. Le chantier Robert Pinget : Colloque de Tours. 13. 2000.
- 4.Pinget Robert. www.leseditionsdeminuit.fr.
- 5.Mégevand, Martin. Pinget seen by Beckett, Beckett according to Pinget: The Unpublishable. Journal of Beckett Studies. 19. 1. 3–14. 2010. 0309-5207.
- 6.Smart, Marie. New Novel, Old Tune: Beckett and Pinget in Postwar France. Modernism/Modernity. 21. 2. 529–546. 2014. 1080-6601.
- 7.BBC Programme Index. genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 1960-08-23.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q123389: Robert PingetWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
A further 1 witness is held back from this article because the person or object named in it is not yet resolved to this record. They are kept, not discarded, and return once the identity is established.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,661 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Robert Pogue HarrisonAuthor
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