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Home » France » Julien Gracq » Les Terres du couchant (The Sunset Lands

This book, Gracq’s last novel was written in the 1950s but it was not published, at his request, in his lifetime but only 50 years later. If you have read other of his books, the basic scenario will seem somewhat familiar. It is set in a mythical country known only as The Kingdom. While the landscape may not be too unfamiliar to us, it is still somewhat mythic with abandoned estates and wild forests The country seems to be somewhat obsessed with legal issues and there are various legal disputes which carry on in the background. The narrator works for the land registry and is involved in sorting out disputes in that area.

The capital is called Bréga-Vieil and we start there but our narrator has to travel for his work. He travels to a more distant town, Briona-Haut, to deal with legal issues where he meets up with his friend Hingaut. One evening they see a group of people entering a chapel. They follow the them in and it seems that there is a man fromRoscharta. We have learned earlier that there are barbarians who might menace the Kingdom but seem far enough away. However, this man knows that they are approaching and his town needs help, in the form able bodied men or money. A collection is held but an official appears and says this is illegal as it has not been approved so he has to return the money.

Our heroes are worried about this and feel they should get involved so they set off with three worthy companions.

The journey is initially fairly straightforward though they do see such things as abandoned estates and, of course, wild forests. There is clear evidence that people do live around here – hunters, looters and like but they are in no way threatening. After while they come to the border and and hope to cross it easily, but it turns out that it is well blocked off, although they do eventually manage to sneak through. They see more people- little communities of trappers, cobblers and horse thieves. They also meet some women. The women are never alone but always with other women. They seem to get on better with the women partially, of course, for the obvious reasons.

They continue through a variety of landscapes – Graq’s speciality – including a variety of forests but also seascapes, including dunes and also wide open plains. In many cases these landscapes have an influence on the main characters.

Eventually, after a long journey, they arrived at Roscharta which is high up in the mountains with a landscape clearly influenced by the landscape of the French Alps.

The town clearly had been well fortified, but some of it was clearly fallen into wrack and ruin. The enemy are in camped in front of the town in a plain on the edge of the Alps. There is a clear pass through the Alps where presumably the enemy gets their supplies.

We learn who the enemy are – the Angarians – a term referring to a part of Germany..

Our heroes seem to be welcomed here and settle in. But the for the first time we find some connection with our world as there are books in his room, including Marco Polo and books in Latin.

Our narrator spends a considerable amount of time wandering around the town and we get from him a description of the layout. The town is seemingly, at least according to its occupiers, impregnable. However, firstly they are defending two parts. There is the main town but there is also the Castle of.Armagh (the name of a Northern Ireland county!) The two are not connected except by the great plain between them which is wholly occupied by the enemy. Behind the castle, there are the Alps. The enemy is threatening the castle and seems to have a way to get closer.

On the other side there is a lake, but that is wholly occupied by the enemy. The enemy also has cavalry. Roscharta has limited cavalry because they cannot get the fodder. Despite all this and despite the occasional shooting, the war seems more like a war of attrition than aggression.

The narrator will give us a considerable description of the city, seeing it from different angles and at different times of the day and once again this isGracq’s forte as it is both colourful and imaginative.

our narrator and his friends both get involved and explore the town and get to know the people. Again we get the highly imaginative descriptions of both the town and its in inhabitant.

However, things are not going well on the military front. The enemy increases its actions and also shows us that they are viciously cruel.

As for our narrator he says For each of us, this year is the last. To live here, we came eight hundred leagues on a road full of dangers. How does it end? That is entirely ambiguous. It is not clear, indeed, whether the book has indeed ended or whether it was more or less abandoned byGracq

So we have a story of a declining empire which seems to be obsessed with legal trivia and ignoring the enemy at the gate. Yes, the gate is quite a distance away but nevertheless empires crumble. When their frontiers give way.

For the reader this book works very well because of the wonderful descriptions thatGracq gives us various landscapes, at various times of the day, of interactions with other people and, of course, a tricky military situation with which and the narrator and his friends get involved in, presumably without the knowledge of the officials in the capital city.

We can make all sorts of comparisons with the situation in France after the war, with is empire dwindling as well as speculating exactly when this book is set. Answer: probably a mixture of periods) but to fully appreciate it, we should take it at face value and enjoy it as Gracq’s superb swansong.

Publishing history

First published in 2014 by José Corti
First published in English in 2026 by wWakefield Press
Translated by Georges Maclennan