A grump, the nameless protagonist of this abyssal outer monologue, exposes the tasteless triviality of this world in furious tirades, to which his wife and children, his only friend, indeed the entire humanity, have long submitted. Yet his arrogance does not free him; rather, it continually forces him back into the tight societal corset. Gide's narrative, a cynical Christmas story in which his protagonist miscalculates significantly, is the twisted protocol of a grumpy implosion and a deadly explosion, brilliantly staged by Nanne Meyer. Discovered only in 1993, the manuscript "Le Grincheux" was likely created in the years 1925/26 and is now appearing for the first time in German.