Paris in the 1930s Louis Grandeville has a beautiful wife a nice home aloyal servant and a large circle of wellplaced friends. His financialsituation doesnt req... » 

Paris in the 1930s Louis Grandeville has a beautiful wife a nice home aloyal servant and a large circle of wellplaced friends. His financialsituation doesnt require him to work. Yet Louis is obsessed by the naggingreality that he never has and never will amount to anything. He believes hislife is devoid of any affection of any goal filled instead with a thousandtrifles intended to relieve its monotony populated with human beings he seeksout to avoid being alone but for whom he cares little.The winter of the title is in fact a period of four months during whichevery few days Louis commits to paper the minute details of his unhappymarriage. Although his wife Madeleine is the focal point of his journal andhis preoccupation with the minutiae of her life mind and body is dangerouslyobsessive his painstakingly rendered analyses of her behavior tell us far moreabout him than about her and about the harm two people can do to each other. «