Le Culte du moi

work by Barrès

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June 25, 2026

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Le Culte du moi (The Cult of the Ego) is a trilogy of novels by French writer Maurice Barrès, published between 1888 and 1891. The trilogy includes Sous l’oeil des Barbares, Un Homme libre, and Le Jardin de Bérénice. This work is characterized by its focus on self-analysis and individualism, reflecting a broader literary movement known as Decadence. Decadent writers often explored themes of disillusionment and a rejection of traditional values, focusing instead on subjective experience and aestheticism. Barrès's work, while part of this movement, also foreshadowed his later fervent nationalism.12

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French literature
The Decadents
…Against the Grain) and the Culte du moi (“Cult of the Ego”) trilogy (1888–91) by Maurice Barrès. It derives from the same determinist philosophy as Naturalism and has much in common aesthetically with Impressionism in that it focuses on subjectively perceived moments of physical experience, held to have no significance…
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…Against the Grain) and the Culte du moi (“Cult of the Ego”) trilogy (1888–91) by Maurice Barrès. It derives from the same determinist philosophy as Naturalism and has much in common aesthetically with Impressionism in that it focuses on subjectively perceived moments of physical experience, held to have no significance…
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Maurice Barrès
…the trilogy of novels entitled Le Culte du moi (“The Cult of the Ego”). This work comprises Sous l’oeil des Barbares (1888; “Under the Eyes of the Barbarians”), Un Homme libre (1889; “A Free Man”), and Le Jardin de Bérénice (1891; “The Garden of Bérénice”).
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…the trilogy of novels entitled Le Culte du moi (“The Cult of the Ego”). This work comprises Sous l’oeil des Barbares (1888; “Under the Eyes of the Barbarians”), Un Homme libre (1889; “A Free Man”), and Le Jardin de Bérénice (1891; “The Garden of Bérénice”).
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