[La Neige en Deuil (The Mountain)] is a tale of great simplicity, yet one cannot fail to be struck by the quantity of imagery to be found in it. Troyat has achieved the quality of simplicity by having the story put before us mostly seen through the eyes of the main character, Isaïe. Once the author has set the scene, we find, after a gradual transition, that it is Isaïe's view we are sharing, his experience past and present which we are living. And Isaïe is an unsophisticated man of the mountains. Further, he has become [impaired], as the result of a serious climbing accident and the brain operations that followed…. It is then hardly surprising that his vision of the world should be limited, but the originality of his thinking processes lies in their figurative quality…. [His visions] bring, with great economy, an extra...