This article explores and reassesses Furetière's Le Roman bourgeois (1666), taking as its starting point its Parisian setting, and applying in particular the self-reflexivity of gossip to the narrative construction and digressions of the text. It is argued that the overlap between oral and written discourses forms one of the main unifying factors of the book as is the role played by literal and figurative keys. The article concludes with analysis of the distinction between notions of public and private.