Valéry. Tenter de vivre

Valéry. Tenter de vivre is an essay written by Benoît Peeters about Paul Valéry.

Paul Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events ¹⁾.

“Valéry is much more than the posterity has made of him. This is one of the most fascinating writers ever existed.” says Benoît Peeters. “He is a man who had a dazzling debut when he was very young; friend of Pierre Louÿs and André Gide, favorite disciple of Mallarmé, he published his first poems in the best journals, and then he wrote two dazzling texts: L’Introduction à la méthode de Léonard de Vinci and the La soirée avec Monsieur Teste.. 25 years ago, he turned his back on literature and during the next twenty years he didn't publish anything, although he kept working in the early mornings in his mysterious notebooks. To the young André Breton, he is a new Rimbaud.”

“At the age of 45, Valéry returns to the literature, and he publish La Jeune Parque, and countless charming essays. Very soon the glory seizes his name, a great glory we can hardly represent today. His revival is not only in literary, it is also in vitality. Love, long repressed, takes a seat on the later. In 1920 Valéry meets Catherine Pozzi. He has a tormented link with her for eight years. His relations with Renée Vautier and Jeanne Loviton (called Jean Voilier) are equally important. The traces they have left reveal a fragile, burning, sensitive and endearing Paul Valéry.”

Benoît Peeters: “This book is not a biography as I have written about Derrida and Hergé. This is a synthetic picture, a story where the work and life ceasing to interlace. Far from speaking only to specialists, I want to propose new gateways into the world of Paul Valéry and new reasons to venture. I also examines the posthumous fate of his work and how reinvent the eve of its entry into the public domain. ”

Paul Valéry

Some images of Paul Valéry.

Release date

Benoît Peeters with the first copy

The book (400 pages, 135 x 220 mm) is published by Editions Flammarion and is released at April 2, 2014

Read a preview of the book

The first part of the book can be read in the following preview: valery.pdf

Table of content

Valéry	1
Pourquoi Valéry	9
Je fus l'enfant qu'il ennuyait de « s'amuser »	20
Un jeune homme perdu au fond de la province	26
Je suis de ceux pour qui le livre est saint	32
Sa tête d'adorable Méduse	49
Entre ma tête et moi 56Cependant, il faut vivre !…	63
Des gens infiniment forts	72
Peut- être vais-je me mettre à écrivasser beaucoup	80
L'heure de la vie qui compte le plus	90
Mon attitude dans l'affaire célèbre	97
L'homme que j'aimais le plus au monde	111
Je n'ai plus qu'à me marier	119
Cet excellent patron	128
Plus je pense, plus je pense	135
Ce serait mon oeuvre, la seule…	146
Je crois, hélas ! que ça y est…	152
Mon jeune ami se nomme André Breton	160
La Jeune Chose	168
On va me croire déchaîné	184
J'en ai le coeur saisi comme dans la glace	192
Un type dans le genre de Tristan Tzara	200
On me prend pour un poète !	210
Tu as cassé quelque chose en moi	216
Je n'ai plus que ce stylo pour subsister	233
Crois- tu que je ne connaisse pas la solitude ?	247
L'Académie n'est pas mon fort	256
J'envie ces hommes	266
Le droit d'être bête jusqu'au soir	273
Malheureux avec éclaircies parfois	280
Le Bossuet de la Troisième République	297
Je crois que j'étais assez fait pour une « Europe »…	304
Je deviens fou de penser à toi	312
L'âme désolée et l'esprit en ruines	321
Je suis vaincu336Voilà ton oeuvre…	345
Lire Valéry	349
Notes	367
Remerciements	393