Abstract
According to Paul Valéry, art presupposes several ways of doing . This imposes a choice in the genetics of the text, which will separate the work between an origin and an end, which are not necessarily identical. For example, among the possible variants of the denouement of Le Cid, " recommendations of empirical origin " have made it possible to settle on the rules that applied to classical theater.
Valéry had set out to create a work that would show the " knots" of its elaboration, i.e. the diversity of hypotheses that present themselves to the mind in the process of composing it. These " possible textual " can be broken down into three categories of variants : 1) ghost texts (the author's mental projections during the writing process) ; 2) the " halo of possible texts " (the reader's anticipation of possible sequels during the actual reading process, which is reshaped as the reading progresses) ; 3) versions (different attested interpretations of the same text). Some works, such as Manon Lescaut or Les Faux-monnayeurs, reveal these forks in the road, clues that point the reader to other possible versions and reveal a critical moment in the author's development of the text.
