Château, livres et manuscrits, IXe - XXIe siècles : Actes des Rencontres d'archéologie et d'histoire en Périgord, les 23, 24 et

Reducing owning a castle to the mere affirmation of a social superiority would be inappropriate. We know, since Montaigne, that castles are for the writer both a haven and an observatory, a suitable place to think and create – a surrounding wall and, better yet, ditches and a drawbridge offer protection from the outside world; the tower, even more so when round, completes the materialisation of this safety and fullness feeling. La Brède, where all these elements of entrenchment are brought together and even reinforced by a woodland belt, appears like the archetypal castle isolation. However, even if his solitude cravings were strong, the writer’s castle never was completely shut out from the world – it even appears as the best place to confront the “inner self” to the “social self”.