The collection presents works from different years by one of the most prominent writers of modern France, starting with the first underground publication of French literature of the Resistance, the story “The Silence of the Sea.” The traditions of Voltaire's philosophical story are continued by such works of Vercors as "People or Animals?" and “Silva”, full of deep thoughts about the nature of man, about his place in the world. The acuteness of the problematic, the debunking of the “leftist phrase”, and the appearance of an anti-bourgeois rebellion distinguish the novel “The Raft of the Medusa”. All the work of the humanist writer is imbued with concern for the fate of man in modern society, faith in the triumph of human reason.