Jean-Paul Enthoven, still in the running for the 2026 Renaudot Essay Prize, faces accusations of literary "piracy" following the publication of his Dictionary of Love for Happiness, released this fall by Plon. The book has drawn comparisons to works by Frédéric Schiffter, including The Charm of Sad Thinkers (Flammarion, 2013) and The Chic Dictionary of Philosophy (Écriture, 2014), with certain passages resembling sequences published more than ten years earlier by Schiffter. ActuaLitté has compared the texts. The controversy began with a public joke by Jean-Paul Enthoven on April 25, 2025, under an Instagram post where he mentioned working on "a neighboring subject" and warned Schiffter: "I am forced to pillage your 'sad thinkers.'" A year and a half later, Schiffter purchased the Dictionary of Love for Happiness and identified several passages that resemble his own works, including The Charm of Sad Thinkers and The Chic Dictionary of Philosophy. Schiffter also noted several quotes from other authors used in his works, found in Enthoven's book, and a passage related to Bâiller devant Dieu, the journal of Iñaki Uriarte published by Séguier in 2019, which Schiffter himself prefaced. One of the most striking comparisons concerns Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Charm of Sad Thinkers, Schiffter recounts a pilgrimage to Nice on Nietzsche's tracks, mentioning his stay on rue Catherine-Ségurane, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Wagner, the prostitutes of the port, the writing of Zarathoustra, and a Nietzsche less concerned with existential questions than with "the grandeur and decadence of civilizations." The sequence ends with syphilis, madness, aphasia, and death, before concluding: "For the herald of the Superman, this was his masterpiece." In the Dictionary of Love for Happiness, Enthoven follows a similar narrative path, including the same address, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Wagner, prostitutes of the port, the beginning of Zarathoustra, and the opposition between the "drifting thinker" and the themes of grandeur and decadence of civilizations. The conclusion also finds the same sequence: "madness, aphasia and death," before also making Nietzsche a "herald of the Superman." Another comparison involves Hérault de Séchelles, described by Schiffter as the "playboy of the Revolution" in The Charm of Sad Thinkers. Enthoven's Dictionary of Love for Happiness also refers to Hérault as the "playboy of the Revolution," reusing the Theory of Ambition, Gracián, and the expression "make himself laugh alone." The text also includes the "too great a lord," the "too sybaritic," and the "too beautiful," followed by Robespierre, Stendhal, and Julien Sorel, concluding with the idea of a man "guillotined twice." In his Chic Dictionary of Philosophy, Schiffter discusses the marquis de Sade, noting that Flaubert nicknamed him "the Old Man" and appreciating his exaggeration in the evocation of practices condemned by the Church. Enthoven's Dictionary of Love for Happiness also mentions Flaubert and "the Old Man," the exaggeration, the practices condemned by the Church, the descriptive precision, and Diderot and d'Alembert who should have entrusted Sade with writing the "missing" article on perversions. The discussion of happiness, the main subject of Enthoven's dictionary, also shows similarities. In The Charm of Sad Thinkers, Schiffter describes happiness as a "cooled joy, in the background," stripped of its transports, reduced to a pleasant feeling of "ease of being." Enthoven's Dictionary of Love for Happiness also constructs a definition around the same terms: a "cooled joy, in the background" and a "pleasant state of being." The discussion of melancholy also shows similarities. In The Charm of Sad Thinkers, Schiffter describes the melancholic as suffering from a "slowing of his being," which distances him from the "social carousel" but favors a form of lucidity and distance conducive to creation. Enthoven's Dictionary of Love for Happiness develops a very similar idea: melancholy can "stimulate lucidity" and constitutes itself a "slowing of the being," capable of feeding great works. Both developments are extended by a reference to Proust and the idea that suffering can become material for writing. A quote from Gérard de Nerval - melancholy as a way to "see things as they are" - which Schiffter had placed as an epigraph for The Charm of Sad Thinkers, is found again in Enthoven's book. In The Charm of Sad Thinkers, Schiffter opposed "thinkers of joy," who "are not necessarily joyful" but "praise laughter," to "sad thinkers," who are not necessarily thinkers of sadness but "make smile." In Enthoven's Dictionary of Love for Happiness, the equation holds in a single sentence: "Thinkers of joy do not necessarily make laugh. While sad thinkers make smile." Enthoven continues with an account of an strange epidemic of laughter that occurred in Tanganyika in 1962, starting from a school before spreading to part of the population. Schiffter states that this development comes from Iñaki Uriarte, author of Bâiller devant Dieu (Séguier, 2019), whose French edition he had prefaced. Schiffter notes that several quotes from authors that he himself selected in his books reappear in Enthoven's work, including Jean-François Revel, Sade, Schopenhauer, and Gérard de Nerval. The quote from Schopenhauer had been translated by Schiffter himself. That of Nerval opened The Charm of Sad Thinkers as an epigraph. Schiffter explains that the feeling was no longer just to find familiar references, but rather to "re-read" himself. The book includes two explicit attributions to Schiffter. At the entry "Sadness," page 496, it explicitly refers to The Chic Dictionary of Philosophy and cites a remark from its author. Further on, page 525, regarding the "will-to-live," it names "the very Schopenhauerian Frédéric Schiffter" and reuses in quotation marks the expressions "enchante our finitude" and "a salutary madness." After having pointed out the passages to Enthoven, Schiffter receives a private message on September 24, 2026. Enthoven starts by agreeing with him, while specifying that he thinks he cites him twice. Then: "Probably not enough." Especially, he announces a new printing of the book and assures that "the quotation marks will be where they need to be." He also thanks Schiffter for having read it carefully. Plon editions have been approached by ActuaLitté to clarify whether a new printing is indeed planned, which passages will be modified and from when these corrections will appear in the copies circulated. Enthoven has also been approached to respond on these similarities. At the time of publication, neither the author nor his publisher had answered our questions. Schiffter, on the other hand, uses the terms of "piracy," "theft," and "plagiarism." He assures ActuaLitté that he does not intend to initiate any legal proceedings. "The pirate would defend himself by saying that he also cites me with quotation marks and, even, that he openly pays homage to me twice." Before adding that these explicit citations seem to him to coexist with other reuses that, in turn, are not attributed. The paths of Schiffter and Enthoven already cross before this affair. In 2025, the "bathhouse philosopher" relaunches with Frédéric Beigbeder the Paul-Jean Toulet prize, in Guéthary. Among the six finalists is precisely Enthoven, with Je me retournerai souvent. It was during this period that the latter publicly wrote to Schiffter that he would have to "plunder" his "sad thinkers." Facing the Basque philosopher, Enthoven belongs, however, since half a century to the heart of the Parisian literary world. Journalism at Le Nouvel Observateur then at Le Point, publishing with Grasset and Hachette Littératures: his career coincides with several of the places where reputations, books, and debates are made. Since the 1970s, he notably connects with Bernard-Henri Lévy, whom he accompanies in the emergence of the "new philosophers" and with whom he will maintain a lasting closeness. Grasset was long his publisher: up to Je me retournerai souvent, in 2025, the bulk of his work was published there. When Olivier Nora was ousted from the presidency in spring 2026, Enthoven was part of the approximately 130 authors who announced their departure. A few months later, his Dictionary of Love for Happiness was published. Since October 7, he remains among the six essays selected in the second selection of the Renaudot. This year, Frédéric Beigbeder, again, ensures its presidency. Asked by ActuaLitté about the similarities found in Enthoven's book, he answers straightforwardly: "Yes, I am aware and yes, I will take that into account. But I only have one vote!" Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, secretary general of the prize, and Patrick Besson, one of its most eminent jurors, had not responded to our requests at the time of publication. According to Edistat, the Dictionary of Love for Happiness has sold 968 copies at this stage. Schiffter published on October 1 last Un cœur anarchiste, at cherche midi.