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2,

The Walnut Trees Of Altenburg is composed in the form of a triptych, with the two small side panels framing and enclosing the main central episode of the novel.

This central episode consists of a series of staccato scenes set in the period from the beginning of the present century up to the first World War.

The framing scenes, on the other hand, both take place in the late Spring of 1940, just at the moment of the defeat of France in the second great world conflict.

The narrator is an Alsatian serving with the French Army, and he has the same name ( Berger ) that Malraux himself was later to use in the Resistance ; ;

like Malraux he was also serving in the tank corps before being captured, and we learn as well that in civilian life he had been a writer.

These biographical analogies are obvious, and far too much time has been spent speculating on their possible implications.