Le Roman du malade: a report on the meeting with Olivier Philipponnat

On Thursday 17 September 2026, at the Hôtel Littéraire Le Swann, the Société des Amis de Marcel Proust welcomed Olivier Philipponnat, editor of the reissue of Louis de Robert’s Le Roman du malade, and Jérôme Bastianelli, author of its preface, for a conversation hosted by Jacques Letertre as part of the Rencontres des Amis de Marcel Proust.

First published in 1911 and awarded that year’s prize later known as the Prix Femina, Le Roman du malade tells the story of a young writer overtaken by illness. Marcel Proust admired this book, and its author, Louis de Robert, played a decisive part in the birth of the Recherche: it was to him that Proust turned for advice before the publication of Du côté de chez Swann, and he was the first to read its proofs.

The full report of this meeting is now online in the Meetings section of our resources.

Read the report