Things: A Story of the Sixties

work by Perec

Also known as: “Les Choses: une histoire des années soixante”(Show More)

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

June 24, 2026

Quick Summary

Things: A Story of the Sixties is a 1965 novel by Georges Perec. It is a story about a young Parisian couple whose identities become consumed by their possessions and the consumer culture of the 1960s. Perec, a prominent member of the Oulipo group, was known for his innovative literary experiments. This novel, his best-selling work, critiques the materialistic values prevalent in society during that era.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Georges Perec
…histoire des années soixante (1965; Things: A Story of the Sixties) concerns a young Parisian couple whose personalities are consumed by their material goods. In 1967 he joined the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Workshop of Potential Literature). Known in short as Oulipo, the group dedicated itself to the pursuit of…
Read More
…histoire des années soixante (1965; Things: A Story of the Sixties) concerns a young Parisian couple whose personalities are consumed by their material goods. In 1967 he joined the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Workshop of Potential Literature). Known in short as Oulipo, the group dedicated itself to the pursuit of…
Read More

French literature
Other literature of the 1970s
…histoire des années soixante (Things: A Story of the Sixties), a devastatingly comic account of a young couple in thrall to consumerism and the rhetorics of advertising. He followed this with other discourse games, such as La Disparition (1969; A Void), a text composed entirely without using the letter…
Read More
…histoire des années soixante (Things: A Story of the Sixties), a devastatingly comic account of a young couple in thrall to consumerism and the rhetorics of advertising. He followed this with other discourse games, such as La Disparition (1969; A Void), a text composed entirely without using the letter…
Read More