Le Chercheur d’or (The Prospector)

Inspired by the adventures of Le Clézio’s paternal grandfather, Léon Le Clézio, The Prospector is set on the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues. Driven from his childhood home by bankruptcy and a cyclone, the narrator, Alexis L’Étang, becomes obsessed with fulfilling his father’s dream: finding a legendary pirate treasure hidden on Rodrigues.

The novel combines adventure and initiation, recalling Stevenson’s Treasure Island while drawing on the literary worlds of Paul et Virginie and Robinson Crusoe. Yet the search for gold gradually becomes another kind of quest: for spiritual truth, inner harmony and a lost communion with the natural world.

Le Clézio later explained that his grandfather never found the treasure, but left behind remarkably detailed plans so that someone else might continue the search: “He was a dreamer, but a meticulous dreamer, leaving a very detailed map of a world that does not exist.”

For the binding, Louise Bescond created a tropical landscape crossed by a trail of gold, evoking the landscapes of Mauritius and Rodrigues and the elusive treasure that gives the novel its title.

A very fine copy of one of Le Clézio’s major novels, in the rare first issue on Hollande deluxe paper.

© Courtesy of Hugo Julliot