It was not until five or six years after his marriage that Rétif appeared as an author, and from that time to his death he produced a bewildering multitude of books, amounting to something like two hundred volumes, many of them printed with his own hand, on almost every conceivable subject.
Abia la cinci sau șase ani după căsătoria lui, Rétif a devenit scriitor și, din acel moment până la moartea sa, el a scris o cantitate impresionantă de cărți, însumând aproximativ două sute de volume, multe dintre ele imprimate cu propria lui mână, pe aproape orice subiect imaginabil.