Happy the Hours

Pascal Quignard has received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie francaise (2000), the Prix Goncourt (2002) and the Prix Formentor (2023), amongst other prestigious awards. Happy the Hours, the twelfth in his Last Kingdom Series, translated by Chris Turner, is published in 2026 by Hermits United.

• I Evenings at CompiegneII Dying on the HourIII Dates and HoursIV The Livres d'HeuresV The Beach at IschiaVI There are Three Suns in the SunVII Speculum historialeVIII RemovalIX HoraiX The YonneXI MogadorXII The Belem TowerXIII WaterXIV PaviaXV The Anarythmetic XVI Saint TeresaXVII The Master of the Return to OriginsXVIII The Ruins of JumiegesXIX The Lost HouseXX La rue du presbytereXXI The HuntXXII The Temple (Tempula) of TimeXXIII The Cosy Nook for Memories of the World XXIV General HistoryXXV Skates and RaysXXVI ElversXXVII 1955-2017XXVIII AngerXXIX Hero's TowerXXX BernXXXI NovemberXXXII Dates of ThalassaXXXIII ResurgencesXXXIV RenaissancesXXXV The Livres d'Heures of LoveXXXVI The Girl in the AshesXXXVII PoemsXXXVIII The Palace of Versailles in the Snow in 1991XXXIX The 1640sXL The Hours Torn from the BookXLI Jean BruneauXLII LucretiusXLIII Literature as CryptographyXLIV Charles de Saint-EvremondXLV Giordano BrunoXLVI Madeleine de SableXLVII A Carrot SoupXLVIII La GaligaiXLIX SpinozaL Plutarch

Happy the Hours, translated by Chris Turner, is the 12th volume in a cycle Pascal Quignard began in 1997. These brief pieces - some no more than a few paragraphs - are not essays or pensees but reflections on the world. Memories of a beach at night, of the illustrations in a Book of Hours, are transcendent, even numinous. Musings on the goddess Tellus, or eels in old age as they arrive back from the Sargasso Sea, fork and divide into meditations on music, history and, above all, time. For all his erudition, Quignard writes with a mesmerising sense of awe and wonder that forces the reader to see things anew. Turner's translation is electrifyingly alive to the limpid prose and each delicately-placed word in these glittering miniatures that transfigure thoughts and memories. - Frank Wynne, The Irish Times