Le livre des masques: Portraits symbolistes

A collection of concise critical portraits and essays examines contemporary and earlier writers linked to symbolist aesthetics, combining literary biography with theoretical reflection. It articulates symbolist tendencies as artistic individualism, freedom from received formulas, and an emphasis on the world as shaped by the mind, while contrasting these principles with naturalist doctrines and critics of nonconformity. Each sketch highlights distinguishing traits and obscure aspects rather than exhaustive chronologies, notes lines of influence from predecessors, and compares affinities and differences among authors. The work concludes with bibliographic notes and documents intended to guide further reading and study.