Thursday afternoon
- According to Antoine's notes, the man he is researching (M. Rollebon) was "quite ugly" (5.1). But that didn't stop the dude from having lots of sexual partners. Like Antoine, the guy also did a lot of travelling in his career.
- Starting at a certain point in the Marquis' life, Antoine understands almost nothing about him. There is plenty of info, but it doesn't come together into any sort of clear picture of the man. He wonders how other historians do such a good job of making their information form a coherent picture of the past. He seems unable to do it.
- He feels like he'd be able to write something more truthful if he just wrote a fictional story, since he thinks it's pretty much impossible to speak the truth when writing about the past.