A renowned author, Poulet published many works of literary criticism in his lifetime. Among his most famous books are the four volumes of his masterwork, Studies in Human Time.
The first volume, also called Studies in Human Time, was published in France in 1949 and won the Prix Sainte-Beuve in 1950.
Poulet was awarded the Grand Prix de la Critique littéraire and the French Academy’s Prix Durchon in Philosophy for the second volume, 1952’s The Interior Distance.
Volume three, Le point de départ, was published in 1964. The final volume, Mesure de l’instant appeared in 1968. In these four volumes, Poulet conducts an exhaustive examination of the work of French authors such as Molière, Proust, Flaubert, and Baudelaire to find the expression of what he calls the cogito, or consciousness, of each writer