Professor of English, Matthieu Pieyre: There is the master

The director of Loiret’s Normal School, Mr. Naudi recognized the potential of young Charles Peguin and enrolled him in the sixth form. “He must learn Latin.» To the narrator English teacher, he is Mr. Wilder was not ordered to attend the study. A senior year of high school in the 1970s naturally led to taking English classes.

Nevertheless, his existence will be changed, as will Peguin’s. Imagine this Patrick Wilder – one would almost say an aptonym, whose name is a spirited promise of freedom for a class: yellow beard, epileptics, air of English romance and a quotation from a Victorian poet in the mouth – or Cat Stevens.

The winning class

There is a wilder or a master. It comes from America and it gives unmatched beauty and appeal. Oxford would still be restricted. With him, Barthes says, knowledge and taste must be mixed. Because his teaching was original, fresh, daring. Didn’t he say much…