The conclusion of the livres pairs with Le Voyage au Centre de la Terre makes it tempting to assume that we have just understood the punchline of a joke, the butt of which is the reader. However, we have not been fooled; we have travelled through a considerable range of literature appreciated, for a variety of reasons, by an author who allows us an unusually broad insight into his reading. On the journey we have encountered a great deal of work of impressive quality, as well as more idiosyncratic choices and readings whose relevance is best restricted to a study of Jarry as an individual. The fact that several of the more significant auteurs pairs do not feature in today's general reading of the Belle Epoque reflects changes in taste, rather than any particular absence of talent; artistic ability and durability do not necessarily go hand in hand. Through our introduction to Faustroll's library we are beginning to glimpse not just minutiae of interest to Jarryists, but also certain aspects of the literary orientation of the period, located by contemporary judgments and practice.

The remainder of this study is devoted to aspects of late Symbolist literary practice, as highlighted essentially by the livres pairs and the work of Jarry; naturally the examination cannot claim to be exhaustive, and the fields selected are determined by particular aspects that are either recurrent or that I have found particularly prominent while working through the texts of the livres pairs, and of the contemporary works in particular. These choices are of course subjective, and others will no doubt identify other common strands, as may be expected within such a large and fertile sample of texts; I have also chosen to concentrate on the contemporary livres pairs rather than those from earlier ages, for the simple reason that I have found their relevance to be underestimated in previous work on Jarry.

Faustroll's library gives us a means of access to perspectives on literature that are inherently biased towards the artistic views of Alfred Jarry, and the areas highlighted by these books serve to locate Jarry's work among that of his contemporaries, at the same time as letting us explore a certain portion of his literary environment.