A collection of Dupuy and Berberian's early Mr. Jean stories where the reader is introduced to the life of the titular character a laconic single Parisian male struggling through the usual calamities of life: bachelorhood in his twenties and early thirties and the impending responsibilities of marriage kids and deadlines for his publisher. Mr. Jean is a typical everyman - a scholar who fancies himself a man of letters, a nostalgist whose memories carry a weight few can understand, a lover whose heart knows the greatest of burdens. Melancholic yet joyful reflections on past loves favorite authors marriage and fatherhood are laid out in a breezy comic style.