First line: Il avait consacré toute sa vie à cette machine.

Variants

(1)
  1. “Le passé” by Jacques Sternberg, in Contes glacés (Marabout, 1974) [The official title is “Le passé”; we added the subtitle to distinguish it from Sternberg’s three (or more) other micro-fictions named “Le passé.”].
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jacques Sternberg

Indexer Notes

(1)
  1. Debut Release—The ISFDB indicates that the 1958 version in Entre deux mondes incertains is “Le passé”: Il avait consacré . . .; but based on the fact that this 1958 appearance spans two pages and that the listing at NooSFere says that the 1958 release is actually “Le passé”: Il passait pour . . ., we are listing Entre deux mondes incertains as containing “Le passé”: Il passait pour . . .. This moves the first appearance of “Le passé”: Il avait consacré . . . to the 1974 collection Contes glacés (which also happened to contain “Le passé”: Il avait consacré . . .).