“Sometimes, I’ll have as many as four boys — from 8 to 14 years old — in my bed at the same time, and I’ll engage in the most exquisite lovemaking with them,” Matzneff wrote in his diaries, “Un Galop d’Enfer,” or “Racing Forward,” published in 1985.

“He should be in jail,” a lone critical voice, Denis Tillinac, an editor at La Table Ronde who refused to publish Mr. Matzneff’s diaries, recalled recently. “But no, he’s not in jail, he’s welcomed and pampered by the president of the Republic, Mitterrand.”

He was invited to the Élysée Palace by President François Mitterrand and socialized with the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. He benefited from the largess of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, the business tycoon Pierre Bergé.

But Mr. Matzneff has been summoned to appear in a Paris court on Wednesday, accused of actively promoting pedophilia through his books. Mr. Matzneff could face up to five years in prison, yet the case is also an implicit indictment of an elite that furthered his career and swatted away isolated voices calling for his arrest.

In a widening investigation, prosecutors announced Tuesday morning that the police would start seeking witnesses to find other possible victims of Mr. Matzneff.

The scandal began last month when Vanessa Springora, one of Matzneff victims, who was groomed and sexually exploited by him when she was 14, published a book about her experience that hit a nerve in France post-Epstein. (Remember, Epstein owned a flat in Paris, and had ties to the French elites).

It was called the "#MeToo of the French publishing world"