An English translation of Élisabeth, a 1946 novel written by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer under a pseudonym years before he turned to film-making, has been republished and is receiving enthusiastic reviews. Critics and scholars are hailing it as both a lost modernist work in its own right and a revealing precursor to the themes and preoccupations that would define his celebrated cinematic career, including Claire's Knee, The Green Ray and My Night at Maud's.

Rohmer, born Maurice Schérer, wrote the novel aged 24 while working as a journalist in Nazi-occupied Paris, publishing it under the name Gilbert Cordier to protect his Catholic family, though the book flopped commercially regardless. Set in the summer of 1939, it follows young lovers navigating age-gap affairs and semi-incestuous flirtations in small-town France; disheartened by its failure, Rohmer abandoned literature for film criticism and then directing. The new edition, translated by Aaron Kerner with a foreword by novelist André Aciman, has drawn praise from critics such as Richard Brody of the New Yorker, who called it a rewarding read regardless of its author's identity.