With this ironic remark, Vladimir Jankélévitch concludes the first letter he sent, in 1923, to his friend and classmate Louis Beauduc. Over the next fifty-seven years, 137 more letters would follow. This previously unpublished correspondence spans nearly sixty years of Jankélévitch’s life, from his youth at the École normale supérieure to his final years of teaching at the Sorbonne. It reveals the intimate thoughts of a philosopher for whom friendship was as vital a space of reflection as his formal treatises.
Written to Louis Beauduc—a discreet professor and subtle thinker—these letters sketch the portrait of Jankélévitch as a student, music lover, admirer of Bergson, deeply shaken by war, a member of the Resistance, and later, a relentless witness to the irreversible. They unveil his passions, doubts, revolts, and his unwavering faith in life—that life he never ceased to celebrate, even in mourning and suffering. A historical document that traces the genesis of a body of work and the depth of a lifelong bond. A lesson in loyalty, thought, and presence in the world. And a window into the inner exile of a philosopher. Book, in French.
—Patrick FRÉMEAUX
558 pages
