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(Draft for The Voyeur by Alain-Robbe Grillet)

= The Voyeur = The Voyeur (French title: Le Voyeur) is a novel written by Alain Robbe-Grillet. The novel was published on February 1st, 1955 by Les Éditions de Minuit. That same year it received the prix des Critiques. The Voyeur is Robbe-Grillet's second published novel, and perhaps his most well-known. The novel is a great example of the Nouveau Roman movement, of which Robbe-Grillet is a prominent figurehead.

Plot Introduction
The Voyeur follows a travelling watch salesman Mathias. On a Tuesday, Mathias takes a ferry from the mainland to what he says is the island he grew up on. Mathias plans to sell 90 watches before the ferry heads back to the mainland, giving him just six hours to accomplish this feat. A feat of which Mathias estimates will only allow him four minutes per watch if he is to sell them all. While Mathias is on the island making his rounds, a young hellcat by the name of Jacqueline LeDuc who is only thirteen years old disappears between 11:30am and 12:30pm. Mathias misses the ferry at the end of the day, and he is forced to stay on the island until Friday when the ferry will return. Wednesday morning, two crab fishers find Jacqueline's naked body knocking against an outcrop of rocks at the base of some cliffs on the island. The novel is presented from Mathias' point of view, and details Mathias meticulously crafting his alibi to account for his location and doings between 11:30am and 12:30pm, the time of Jacqueline's disappearance.

Characters

 * Mathias — Watch salesman and the protagonist. Claims to be from the island, but no one seems to truly recognize or remember him.  He also needed to study up on the island and its inhabitants before making his sales trip, suggesting he isn't as familiar with the island as he claims.  Additionally Mathias never revisits his supposed childhood home and can't recall where exactly it is or was.  However, as with most shady details in the novel, there is a plausible explanation for this: all the houses on the island are nearly identical with the same outside decor and the same floor plan.
 * Jacqueline LeDuc — The youngest member of the LeDuc family. She is thirteen years old and already sexually promiscuous.  Her reputation precedes and all the natives of the island, as well as her mother, agree that she is a no-good troublemaker, who only brings misery on her family and mother.  She is the source of an altercation between a sailor she was engaged to and Julien Marek.  She also appears to have rubbed many residents of the island the wrong way, including man named either Jean Robin or Pierre.  While she is letting her family's sheep graze in a pasture she regularly visits, which also everyone in town knows is the place she takes the sheep, she disappears between the hours 11:30am and 12:30pm.  Her naked body is found the next day floating at the base of the cliffs.
 * Violette — Not explicitly present in the story and her character is largely left unexplained. She appears to be someone Mathias knew in the past, or whom he read about in a news article (which he carries in his wallet, though the contents of the article are never explicitly revealed).  Violette is also presented as a young girl around thirteen resembling Jacqueline: black hair, same style of dress, same figure, the same wide-open eyes.  Additionally many of the female bar tenders and café servers bear a striking resemblance to Jacqueline or Violette.
 * Julien Marek — Youngest son of the Marek family. At some point he was involved with Jacqueline, and ended up nearly drowning after being tossed in the bay due to a brawl with a young sailor over Jacqueline.  Due to this and other reason, Julien's father Robert suspects him of having killed Jacqueline LeDuc in revenge over their relationship.  Julien's whereabouts between the hours of 11:30am to 12:30pm are unaccounted for as well, but he seems to know more about Mathias' whereabouts during that time period than everyone else on the island.
 * Jean Robin or Pierre — He claims to be an old friend of Mathias after spotting him in a bar in a residential part of the island. Although neither Jean Robin or Mathias can recall anything about their supposed past relationship.  Nor does Mathias know Jean Robin's name, however Jean Robin does know Mathias' name.  After meeting at the bar, Jean Robin takes Mathias back to his cottage located in an isolated tranquil cove on the island to have lunch.  On the door of his cottage is carved the name Jean Robin.  Jean Robin's whereabout between 11:30am and 12:30pm are assumed to be near the pasture where Jacqueline disappeared according to the young woman living in his cottage, who reveals to Mathias his name is Pierre.  At lunch in his cottage Jean Robin also says "She'll not be coming around here anymore" referring to Jacqueline before it is publicly known she is dead.

Style
The Voyeur employs the narrative style of free indirect discourse. The novel is presented from Mathias point of view, but through third person narration. The narration is written in Mathias' voice as he meticulously crafts his alibi and documents his whereabouts on the day of Jacqueline's disappearance and death. With the narration being filtered through this lens, events are often revisited and retouched as Mathias realizes a weak point in his alibi. As with many of Robbe-Grillet's novels very specific details, phrases, and actions are purposely repeated over and over throughout the novel. The same description of a black-haired woman leaning over and revealing her pale neck appears multiple times. The same description of a young girl leaning against a pole with her arms behind her resting in the middle of her back and her legs slightly bent and parted is repeated over and over. The same description of a house, its environs, and its layout is repeated over and over. The same description of a seagull standing on a post on a rainy day is repeated. Another point of repetition is Mathias selling procedure when he goes house to house. His approach to the house, the house's windows and hedges, the mark on the door, him knocking with the back of his ring, entering the house, placing the suitcase on the wax tablecloth, the click of the suitcase as it opens, placing the brochure in the opened top-half of the suitcase, displaying and showing his merchandise, and his spiel to sell the watches. This process is often rehashed and repeated to the point where at the end of the novel, Robbe-Grillet describes this routine in short fragments and single words. Robbe-Grillet's use of these very specific, detail-oriented descriptions and repetitions is part of the nouveau roman style, but also serves a way to give the veneer of objectivity in the narration. However this objectivity is attenuated by filtering the narration through Mathias voice as he crafts his alibi. Besides the repetition and reworking by Mathias of his past actions, other slip-ups in Mathias own memory give clues that Mathias is hiding something or at least not relating his actions in a truthful manner. He often forgets whether or not he has his suitcase with him or not. He will relate an event where he has his suitcase. Then in relating an event which immediately follows he will reach for his suitcase, which he claims to have had with him, but then as he is reaching he will remember he actually never had it. Another slip-up similar to this is Mathias tends to describe a lot of women as resembling Violette/Jacqueline. At one point Mathias is making this description of the bar tender in the café where he meets Jean Robin, when he stops and corrects himself and begins a new description.