The Castle of Argol is the first novel by Julien Gracq (b. 1909), one of the most sophisticated French writers of the 20th century. The author himself defined his novel as a “demonic version” of Wagner’s opera “Parsifal” and at the same time a “tribute of respect and gratitude” to the “mighty miracles” of Gothic novels and the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The action of the novel takes place in the romantic space of a secluded castle, cut off from the world. Heroes, torn from the usual flow of time, live in anticipation of an unknown fate, the secret orders of which they readily accept.