Things (fr. Les Choses) is a novel by Georges Perec. It received the Prix Renaudot in 1965.
It recounts the life of a young couple — both pollsters — in the 1960s. At the end of the book, they depart to live in Sfax, Tunisia, as did in fact Georges Perec and his wife in the year 1960-1961.
The characters in the novel do not hold as much textual importance as the things (les choses) meticulously described throughout. Perec's use of the conditional tense plunges the reader into the dreams of the characters in the novel (consider, for example, the first line: "L'œil, d'abord, glisserait sur la moquette grise d'un long corridor, haut et étroit" [The eye, at first, would glide over the grey carpet of a long hallway, tall and narrow]). The characters themselves are only introduced in the third chapter; the principal place being reserved for les choses, which are omnipresent in this novel.
This novel also explores "happiness" in a consumer society.
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