Idée Fixe: The Collected Works of Paul Valéry, Volume 5

An informal dialogue of ideas in which Valéry paints a witty portrait of himself

Offhand, personal, and amusing, Paul Valéry’s Idée Fixe is an informal imaginative dialogue of ideas in which two men vacationing at the sea seek refuge from boredom by engaging in intellectual banter about human nature, the mind, and the haphazard relationship between humans and the world. Since the first-person speaker is unmistakably Valéry, the dialogue is perhaps more than anything else a wry self-portrait ...