Dans le labyrinthe.

Inscribed on the day of Robbe-Grillet's fictitious Battle of Reichenfels

First edition, out-of-series for presentation from an edition of 70 plus 7 numbered hors-commerce copes, inscribed from the author to the distinguished editor and journalist François Erval on the front free endpaper, "A François Erval, qui a deja fait tant pour faire connaitre ces recherches, avec tout l'amitié de Robbe Grillet, 30 Sept. 59. Journ d'une bataille mémorable (celle de Reichenfels!") ("To François Erval, who has already done so much to make this research known, with the best wishes of Robbe Grillet. 30 Sept. 59. The day of the memorable battle (that of Reichenfels!))" Though Reichenfels is the name of a town in Austria, no notable battles have been fought there; Robbe-Grillet refers only to the imagined events in his own novel, and to the art which inspires the narrator-writer and drives the plot forward, a 19th-century engraving titled "The Defeat of Reichenfels".

Erval was the director of the "Idées" collection at Gallimard and worked as both an editor and literary critic for journals such as L'Express and la Quinzaine littéraire. One day after this copy was inscribed, Erval published a review of Dans le labyrinthe in L'Express, in which he praised the novel for its remarkable linear narrative.

Dans le labyrinthe is of one of the author's most acclaimed works and a fine example of the Nouveau Roman; it was translated into English the following year.