Tout est calme dans les hauteurs

At the heart of the text, the author cultivates humor and irony, drawing a scathing portrait of the great figures of cultural affairs, veritable "frogs in oxen's clothing."

The heights where all is calm are those of Moritz Meister's life. This famous author, whom one would readily call "Master," has just completed his masterpiece, Tetralogy, a twenty-year labor. At the height of his fame, he lives secluded in his idyllic home in the German Prealps. His wife is merely his humble servant, a piano virtuoso who could have had a prodigious career, but who sacrificed herself to let him shine. Everyone admires him, but above all, he admires himself. A fulfilled author, the prince of writers, he knows everything. Literature, music, archaeology, and even beekeeping hold no secrets for him. From one twist to the next, he sinks deeper into his vanity, however senseless it may be. With Maître, Bernhard invites us on a bitter plunge into a major intellectual and literary deception, in which the writer-philosopher Moritz Meister plays the leading role, perfectly ridiculous, disturbing too, but terribly emblematic of a compromised and mendacious elite.