 Despite these influences, Simon's work is thematically and stylistically highly original.War is a constant and central theme (indeed it is present in one form or another in almost all of Simon's published works), and Simon often contrasts various individuals' experiences of different historical conflicts in a single novel; World War I and the Second World War in "L'Acacia" (which also takes into account the impact of war on the widows of soldiers), the French Revolutionary Wars and the Second World War in "Les Géorgiques".In addition, many of the novels deal with the notion of family history, those myths and legends which are passed down through generations and which conspire in Simon's work to affect the protagonists' lives.