Historical dream account · English · machine translation
The bereavement forgotten during lunch
Marcel Foucault
Le rêve : études et observations (1906) · Original 1906 edition, observation VII, printed pp. 50; PDF pages 68
Dreamer identified by the source: Foucault’s wife (unnamed in the source passage)
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
I dream that my maternal grandfather has been dead for several days and that my grandmother has just died. I see her dead and am very saddened. One of my aunts is near me. I tell her that my uncles should be informed. She goes away, and I remain alone beside the dead woman...... I dress to go out and pay a visit to Mme X... in Nevers. To my great surprise, the maid who shows me in takes me into the dining room, where teacups are set out on the table. Mme X... comes after a few seconds, and, I do not know how, I find myself seated at the table. There are six or seven people there, but many places remain empty. We chat cheerfully. I notice that slices of boiled beef are being eaten, and I find it difficult to decide to eat. I finally eat, however, but without pleasure, and reflect that this is a strange way of offering a lunch. Just as we all rise to go our separate ways, the memory that my grandmother has just died comes back to me, and I tell the people present. There are tears in my eyes, and someone, I do not know who, tells me it is very sad, but that my grandmother was elderly, that she was eighty-four. I wake.
Read the original French account
Le deuil oublié pendant le déjeuner
Je rêve que mon grand-père maternel est mort depuis plusieurs jours, et que ma grand'mère vient de mourir. Je la vois morte et je suis très attristée. Près de moi se trouve une de mes tantes. Je lui dis qu'il faudrait prévenir mes oncles. Elle s'en va et je reste seule auprès de la morte...... Je m'habille pour sortir, et vais faire une visite chez Mme X..., à Nevers. A ma grande surprise, la bonne qui m'introduit me fait entrer dans la salle à manger, où des tasses à thé sont dressées sur la table. Mme X... vient au bout de quelques secondes, et, je ne sais comment, je me trouve assise à table. Il se trouve là six ou sept personnes, mais beaucoup de places restent vides. Nous causons gaiement. Je remarque que l'on mange des tranches de bœuf bouilli, et j'ai peine à me décider à manger. Je finis cependant par manger, mais sans plaisir, et je me fais la réflexion que c'est une étrange façon d'offrir un lunch. Au moment où nous nous levons tous pour nous séparer, le souvenir que ma grand'mère vient de mourir me revient, et j'en fais part aux personnes présentes. J'ai des larmes aux yeux, et quelqu'un, je ne sais qui, me dit que c'est bien triste, mais que ma grand'mère était âgée, qu'elle avait quatre-vingt-quatre ans. Je me réveille.
Source & context
English machine translation. The original account, source credit and publication terms remain available.
The source explicitly identifies this as the first of two dreams of Foucault’s wife, recalled two or three hours after spontaneous waking. She is unnamed in the passage; Foucault is the book author and recorder, not the dreamer. The death, social visit and renewed grief remain one account. No exact dream date is inferred, and the following memory analysis is not part of the dream excerpt.
Foucault’s wife (unnamed in the source passage), recorded in Marcel Foucault, Le rêve : études et observations (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1906), observation VII. The book author/recorder and dreamer are credited separately. French editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated dream prose or modern translation.
The source explicitly identifies this as the first of two dreams of Foucault’s wife, recalled two or three hours after spontaneous waking. She is unnamed in the passage; Foucault is the book author and recorder, not the dreamer. The death, social visit and renewed grief remain one account. No exact dream date is inferred, and the following memory analysis is not part of the dream excerpt.
Public domain in the United States (1906 edition) ↗
The original French 1906 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT for copyright-region US. The NoC-US statement describes this US-only basis, not a new Archive or Google license and not blanket worldwide clearance. No modern translation is used. The dreamer is the author’s unnamed wife. Independent wording-authorship and her death date are not established here and are not assigned the compiler’s death date; eligibility is based only on the original 1906 published French text’s expired US term. The acquired Google-derived scan includes a noncommercial-use request for the files and attribution/watermark instructions. This account uses underlying expired text; it does not license or republish the scan files or remove their watermarks.
Source locator and text provenance
Original 1906 edition, observation VII, printed pp. 50; PDF pages 68
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
French descriptive editorial title and navigation themes only. Complete bounded source narrative retained with internal parentheses and dialogue. Running-page/scanning furniture and the outer quotation marker are excluded from the transcription, not erased from source files. Original line wraps are reflowed, source lexical hyphens retained, and only scan-confirmed OCR repairs are made. The complete reversible raw/final ledger is pinned separately. No generated narrative, new translation or added dream episode.
- Account text SHA-256
- 9fb3b772f07ba732d6c72e30a42864d3197091d0415731b5bf07135de368e3eb
- Source file SHA-256
- 3038f6fa4ca96a887e3a181b4e7b24178911a3ebf2da282e5c644bb9589c8dd2
Content notes
- Bereavement
- Death
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.