It tells the story of a declining middle-class family before and after World War I, told in five parts which span over three generations.
[1] The novel was written at a time when Drieu La Rochelle was becoming increasingly more engaged in politics, but its themes and narrative are unpolitical and self-critical.
[2] A first part of the novel was published in 1936 in the November issue of Nouvelle Revue Française.
The finished book was published the year after by éditions Gallimard.
Critics initially greeted it as the author's masterpiece, with some reservations about the change of pace toward the end of the novel.