French Literature Reviews - 2026
Th. Thomas, Hugo Pratt: Line by Line
Art and Visual Culture
Hugo Pratt, trait pour trait
Thierry Thomas
Grasset, 2020
Pages: 256
EAN: 9782246863595 — Digital EAN: 978224686360
For those who deeply resent the arrogance of official culture, reading Corto Maltese is an absolute delight.
To discover this comic book is to step into a world where nothing is excluded and everything coexists: childhood and old age, action and detachment, love and the urge to flee it, utopia and pragmatism, chivalrous conduct and greed (Corto and Rasputin…), buffoonery and melancholy, soldiers and sorceresses, past and present civilizations, journeys through space and time. Hugo Pratt’s art defies the distinction between reflection and entertainment, between high and popular culture—those very boundaries upon which our education is built. On every single page, these categories, these dreary compartments, are utterly shattered.
This novelistic essay is a celebration of this boundless universe. It portrays Hugo Pratt—whom the author knew personally—through an exploration of his art, seeking to reconnect with someone who has passed away via the beauty of his stroke.
Finally, it is an exploration of our love for comic books and the very foundations of that passion.
View the book on the publisher's website…
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An article about this work can be read on en-attendant-nadeau.fr:
"The Eternal Breath of Hugo Pratt", by Olivier Roche (published online June 3, 2020).
Altering their schedule to support bookstores after two months of lockdown, the members of the Goncourt Academy announced the winners of the spring 2020 Goncourt prizes on May 11. Thierry Thomas was awarded the Edmonde Charles-Roux Goncourt Prize for Biography. Yet, *Hugo Pratt, Line by Line* is not a biography. Thierry Thomas, who knew the cartoonist, offers instead an undefinably charming wander, a stroll between daydreams and reflections, a meandering through biographical fragments where an intimate and mysterious Hugo Pratt is gradually revealed in scattered touches—inevitably mysterious, possessed of a "frightening" energy and vitality.
Thierry Thomas's work belongs to a rich tradition of critical essays dedicated to the aesthetics of graphic narratives and bande dessinée. Readers interested in the intersection of biography, graphic novels, and critical essays on art may find this publication a relevant exploration of creative legacy.