Since 1914, the hushed restaurant rooms of Drouant on Place Gaillon have been the setting for a psychodrama that grips the literary world every November. The Prix Goncourt is decried as much for its daring (it honoured Marcel Proust in 1919) as for its timidity (it passed over Louis-Ferdinand Céline in favour of an obscure writer). In any case the result of their deliberations guarantees comfortable royalties for the prize-winner.