His grandfather was from Bessarabia. His father was from Odessa; he came to France to study medicine and remained in Paris. His children were born there, in- cluding Pierre in 1937. When the Germans invaded France in 1940, he decided not to declare his Jewish family and enrolled his children in a Catholic school. The family moved to Saint-Etienne. Upon his release, he opened a dental practice in Vichy. He was a member of the editorial board of En attendant Nadeau. Being a uni- versity professor, he wrote works dedicated to literature such as: Le Premier Venu, Les Baromètres de l'âme, Un à Un. His best known works are: Du bon usage des fragments grecs (1976); Le Premier Venu (essai sur al politique baudelairienne) (1976); De quoi jai peur (1980); Nuits étroitement surveillées (études psychologiques) (1981); La Violence du temps: Fiodorov et Mourjenko - Camp n°389/36 (1982); Le Voyageur d'Occident (1983); Autobiographie de mon père (1987); La Force de dormir (études sur le sommeil en littérature) (1988); Les Baromètres de l'âme. Naissance du journal intime (1990 si 2015); Unà Un. De l'individualisme en littérature- Michaux, Naipaul, Rushdie (1993); Le Grand Age, Cognac, Le Temps qu'il fait (1993); Conversations à Jassy (1997); L'Euvre des jours (1999); Adieu, Belval (2001); Aux Aguets (essais sur la conscienceet P'histoire) (2002); L'Amour dans le temps (2005), etc.