The aim of this article is to examine the interrelations between the notions of will, power and desire in Pierres noires : les classes moyennes du salut, a novel by Joseph Malègue (1876-1940), published posthumously in 1958. The analysis, focused on the notion of powerlessness, englobes two main aspects of the problem: the philosophical one (Bergson’s influence on Malègue, in particular that of Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion, 1932), and the socio-historical (the prism of Halévy’s La fin de notables, 1930).