The French novelist Georges Perec identified strongly with the orphan Kaspar, as depicted in Paul Verlaine's poem, and centered several of his works on characters named Gaspard, referencing the name as Verlaine wrote it in his poem. His first novel, which he believed lost, but was found and published after his death under the title "Portrait of a Man Known as Il Condottiere," was originally titled "Gaspard" and then "Gaspard not Dead". In W, or the Memory of Childhood, Perec alternates autobiographical memories with a retelling of a story he invented as a teenager, centered on a character again named Gaspard. His "MICRO-TRADUCTIONS, 15 variations discrètes sur un poème connu,"(1973) is a work entirely composed of creative variations on Verlaine's poem. And in his most famous work, , Perec again uses the character Gaspard Winkler as a central figure in the story.