當代法國小說家派翠克．德維爾以十九世紀的細菌學家及醫師葉森為藍本，創作出現代傳記小說。在小說中，作者捨葉森之名，反而以《瘟疫與霍亂》作為書名，企圖展現寬闊的傳記小說視野：他不試圖詳實重現葉森生命的各個細節，也不僅止於回顧主角所處時代的人事物，更鮮少設計出人物間的對話場景，而是以二十一世紀的視角，重新將葉森的一生與科學、歷史、地理、現代時空等各層面相互連結，以穿越時空的手法將傳記立體化和小說化。本論文試圖研究作者如何以葉森為中心，由小見大，貫穿過去、現在與未來，同時更試圖分析作者在小說創作手法上的特色。德維爾深厚的哲學與文學素養使其得以旁徵博引，展現以文學作品建構而成的想像世界。另外，我們也將由讀者的角度，省視作品中大量且不同層次的互文現象如何影響閱讀，如何引領讀者發掘作者埋藏於《瘟疫與霍亂》中的謎題。
French novelist Patrick Deville creates a modern biographical novel titled ＂the Plague and Cholera＂ by telling the story of a 19^(th) century doctor and bacteriologist called Yersin. Instead of putting the protagonist's name in the novel's title, the author named his novel ＂the Plague and Cholera＂ in an attempt to show a variety of visions: He doesn't want to reproduce Yersin's life details, nor to recall the protagonist's era and people, and he seldom arranges dialogue scenes between the characters. With the perspective of the twenty-first century, Deville connects Yersin's life to various dimensions, such as science, history, geography, modern time and space, and presents a trans-travel novel through time and space. This research attempts to study how the novel travels through past, present and future. Meanwhile, we try to analyze author's writing style, as his imagination world is built upon on literary works which reveal his wide philosophical and literary knowledge. In addition, from the reader's view, we try to verify how different levels of inter-textuality phenomenon affect reading, and how to guide readers to interpret ＂the Plague and Cholera＂.