Essays and Dialogues (Polis & Praxis Gray Series)

"Finally, if I by chance exterminated your species, I should not know it."

Long before Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God or Camus re-imagined Sisyphus, Giacomo Leopardi peered into the void and found laughter instead of tears.

Essays and Dialogues (Operette morali) is the masterpiece of Italy's greatest modern poet-a work of satirical philosophy that dismantles the comforting illusions of progress and human self-importance. Through a series of witty, surreal conversations involving gnomes...