Born 28 November 1936 in Talence, just outside of Bordeaux, Philippe Sollers was the fourth and last child of Octave Joyaux, an atheist and a bourgeois owner of a factory in the family since the mid nineteenth century, and his Catholic Parisian wife. Philippe Joyaux was an asthmatic child with ear problems and a tendency to be alone during his childhood. Subject to numerous ear operations, he developed a sensitivity for listening and what he would later call "ma propre conception du monde par l'oreille" (my own view of the world through the ear). He developed an affinity for Rabelais, became a prolific reader, learned Italian and Spanish, displayed a passion for spoken languages, and identified with Marcel Proust as a person and a writer.

Educated by Jesuits in Versailles, he learned from them to question authority and to respect method. He began writing as a teenager and adopted the...