Synopses & Reviews
Moving beyond merely biographical or textual interpretation, Claude Tannery traces the philosophy of life and art developed by André Malraux. With both sensitivity and expert interpretation he defines the issues—personal and artistic as well as political—that underlie Malraux's writings—including early as well as late works, novels, speeches, and essays. The result is a new and subtle portrait of Malraux.
Review
"Only the French could have produced André Malraux, because only in France have ideas had any meaning, not to mention respectability, since 1914. Generations of American undergraduates who have pondered Man's Fate, Man's Hope, The Royal Way, and The Metamorphosis of the Gods will find in this new study— superbly translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan—some new readings of those classics, plus a revealing discussion of The Walnut Trees of Altenberg, a rather neglected masterpiece. This is a brilliant essay in intellectual history." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
What emerges from Tannery's analysis is the portrait of an Absolute Agnostic, living his agnosticism as if it were itself a faith. Tannery's through and brilliant documenting of this spiritual journey will radically alter any future readings of Malraux.
About the Author
Teresa Lavender Fagan is a freelance translator living in Chicago; she has translated numerous books for the University of Chicago Press and other publishers.
Table of Contents
Translator's Note
Prologue
Introduction
Part One - Questioning Man
1. The Tragic Existence of Man
2. The Tyranny of the Individual
Part Two - Action or the Absurd
3. Action, or Rejection of the Absurd
4. Rejection of Individual Intoxications
5. The Revolution
Part Three - Lyrical Illusion
6. Fraternity Scorned
7. History as Fatality
8. Man Consumed by the Masses
9. Lyrical Illusion
Part Four - The Metamorphosis of Culture
10. A Metamorphosis of Man
11. Culture: An Agreement of Sensibilities
12. Discontinuous History
13. A Fraternal Consciousness
14. A Fellowship of Difference
15. Reconciled Man
Part Five - Metamorphosis as Universal Law
16. Art Is Not an Antidestiny
17. Religions Are Also Mortal
18. Metamorphosis as Universal Law
19. The Absolute Agnostic
Abbreviations
Works by André Malraux
Index