Abstract

Through a comparative reading of three novels of the late nineteenth century, namely Le Disciple, A rebours and Un homme libre, the monastic hermitage has emerged as a common place in which the protagonists of the novels, in search for a spiritual space, let themselves be shaped and transformed by the materiality of places. Through the consideration of the specific features of these closed and sacred sanctuaries, as well as the identity and the dream of the end of the 19th century man, a new literature searching for an ideal will appear openly.