Story summary
Samenvatting van De discipel
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A philosopher who never reads the papers learns that his pupil stands accused of poisoning a girl.
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De discipel in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 5 h 5 min4 h fast, 6 h slow
- Lengte
- 72.400 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Uitdagend long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1889by Paul Bourget
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De discipel in short
The Disciple follows a chain of ideas from a Paris study to a mountain château and back again. A philosopher who denies all guilt learns that his pupil stands accused of a poisoning. A confession shows how that pupil lost his faith and came to treat a young girl's heart as a laboratory.
What De discipel is about
Why would a quiet philosopher who never reads a newspaper board a night train to a provincial court? Because a young man he met only twice stands accused of poisoning a girl, and that young man says he learned to think from the philosopher's books.
That question drives The Disciple, a novel by the French writer Paul Bourget, published in 1889. It shows what a brilliant idea can do inside a lonely mind, and who must answer for the damage. You meet a Paris hermit, a clever judge and a mother who will not believe the worst.
Voor wie is het?. You will enjoy this book if you like psychological novels, courtroom suspense, nineteenth-century Paris and the old argument over whether ideas shape conduct.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A hermit philosopher who lives by the clock
Adrien Sixte lives on the fourth floor of a house beside the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Born in 1839 in Nancy, the son of a watchmaker, he came here to think and to do nothing else. The whole street sets its clocks by his comings and goings.
His day never changes. He works from six in the morning, walks among the monkey cages, receives students three afternoons a week and puts out his lamp at ten. He reads no newspaper and has cut every tie with his family. His housekeeper even sews blessed medals into his vests without his knowledge.
His books argue that belief in God grows out of processes in the brain and that every act is fixed in advance. Yet he is gentle and oddly childlike. He feels the whole universe moving through his thoughts but has never looked closely at a living person.
A mind that lives wholly among ideas has never been tested by a real person.
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Two messages break the philosopher's routine
One January afternoon in 1887, two things reach Sixte on the same day.
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A judge puts the philosopher's theories on trial
At the Palais de Justice, M. Valette is a fashionable magistrate who turns into a sharp questioner.
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A mother's grief brings a strange manuscript
Leaving the court, Sixte walks along the Seine.
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A boy who learns to split himself in two
The memoir is dated from the jail at Riom and addressed to the master.
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Faith fades as poetry and a master arrive
For four years, from eleven to fifteen, Greslon is a deeply pious child.
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A château, a proud count and a gentle girl
After failing the entrance exam for the École Normale, Greslon accepts a post as tutor in November 1885.
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An experiment on a trusting young heart
Greslon decides to turn Charlotte into a test of his theories.
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Can a thinker answer for his ideas?
The first theme is responsibility.
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A story told by letters, memoir and watchmaking
The structure is a set of frames.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Adrien Sixte A famous Paris philosopher who lives by strict routine and denies free will, and who is now asked to answer for his pupil.
- Robert Greslon A brilliant young tutor from Clermont who admires Sixte and treats his own feelings as experiments, now held in prison.
- Madame Greslon Robert's devoted, simple mother, who begs the philosopher to make her silent son speak and clear his name.
- Charlotte de Jussat The marquis's gentle, romantic daughter, engaged to an officer, who trusts the new tutor and feels everything deeply.
- Count André de Jussat Charlotte's proud elder brother, a dragoon captain who values honor and character and distrusts the tutor.
- Marquis de Jussat A talkative, hypochondriac old nobleman who hires Greslon and cannot see what is happening in his own house.
- M. Valette The stylish investigating judge who questions Sixte and thinks the philosopher's doctrines may be dangerous.
- Mariette Trapenard Sixte's loyal servant, who guards her master's comfort and prays for the soul of a man she thinks a pagan.
How it ends (spoiler)
Greslon is tried at Riom. Count André, tormented, tells the court that his sister killed herself and that he burned her letter. The jury acquits Greslon. After his acquittal, Greslon approaches André outside the hotel, and André shoots him dead, declaring that he has carried out justice. Sixte, who has come to Riom, sits beside the body with the mother, remembers a prayer from childhood and weeps.
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Vragen over De discipel
What is The Disciple by Paul Bourget about?
It tells of a Paris philosopher whose pupil, a young tutor, is accused of poisoning a girl. The pupil's confession shows how the master's ideas shaped him, and the philosopher must face what he owes to the mind he has taught.
Who is Adrien Sixte in The Disciple?
Sixte is a fictional philosopher, born in Nancy, who lives in a quiet Paris street, never reads newspapers and writes books claiming that human acts are fixed. He is modeled on thinkers of Bourget's day, such as Taine and Spencer.
Is The Disciple based on a true story?
The characters and the trial are invented, though Bourget says in his dedication that similar events had occurred in real life. He finished it in 1889 as a study of how ideas can shape young minds.
What is the main message of The Disciple?
Bourget argues that thinkers are responsible for the effects of their ideas, and that a doctrine which weakens love and will should be judged by its fruit. He tells young readers to keep faith in the soul.
Is The Disciple easy to follow?
The book has a clear shape: a mystery opens the story, a long confession fills the middle, and a trial follows. Vivid scenes, lively side characters and short sections make the philosophy easy to follow.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Bourget, Paul. The Disciple. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-disciple.
Bourget, P. (2026). The disciple. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-disciple (Original work published 1889)
Bourget, Paul. The Disciple. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-disciple.
@book{bourget2026disciple,
author = {Bourget, Paul},
title = {The Disciple},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-disciple},
note = {First published 1889}
}
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