16

While many rhetorical tools (such as the classical analysis grid of three levels of style) have become relatively inoperative for understanding contemporary prose, it seems that the notions of Atticism and Asianism are more easily exploited. This paper applies them to the prose of the writer-traveler Sylvain Tesson. He naturally uses the metaphors of the efficient body (beautiful, muscular, and sinewy) used by rhetors to describe Atticism: this image is just as appropriate for describing the asceticism of walking as it is for describing the ideal model of his own prose. The present investigation focuses on several manifestations of the art of formula, which transcends the diversity of genres (collections of aphorisms, diaries, travel accounts, literary criticism) to become a fundamental note in Tesson’s writing.