The Cahiers Notebooks of Paul Valéry are a unique form of writing. They reveal Valéry as one of
the most radical and creative minds of the twentieth century encompassing a wide range of
investigation into all spheres of human activity. His work explores the arts the sciences
philosophy history and politics investigating linguistic psychological and social issues
all linked to the central questions relentlessly posed: 'what is the human mind and how does
it work?' 'what is the potential of thought and what are its limits?' But we encounter here
too Valéry the writer: exploratory fragmentary texts undermine the boundaries between
analysis and creativity between theory and practice. Neither journal nor diary eluding the
traditional genres of writing the Notebooks offer lyrical passages writing of extreme beauty
prose poems of extraordinary descriptive power alongside theoretical considerations of poetics
ironic aphorisms and the most abstract kind of analysis. The concerns and the insights that
occupied Valéry's inner voyages over more than 50 years remain as relevant as ever for the
contemporary reader: for the Self that is his principal subject is at once singular and
universal.
