Walter Benjamin, critic, essayist, translator, philosopher one of
the twentieth century's most influential intellectuals continues to
intrigue today. His work stimulates a profusion of responses in the
form of new novels, operas, films and artworks, as well as a
never-abating production of academic texts. In this new biography,
the first to be written in over a decade, author Esther Leslie uses
the recently published entirety of Benjamin's correspondence,
drawing on his numerous diaries and autobiographical works, in
order to provide a careful account of his circumstances and
thoughts. Benjamin had many interests: he cherished childhood and
its trappings; had a passion for the displacement and novelty of
travel; toys; cities; trick-books; and, ships; all are given due
attention as the author weaves Benjamin's wayward apperceptions
into the narrative of a life lived. She follows Benjamin as he
travels from Berlin to Capri, Ibiza, Riga, Moscow, Paris, and
finally the Spanish border where he died in 1940. The author
acknowledges Benjamin's thesis that personal histories can be
traced only in the context of social milieus, economic forces,
technological shifts, and historical events, and seamlessly
interweaves biographical details with an accessible yet
concentrated account of Benjamin's intellectual development,
drawing a colourful portrait of a capacious intellect trapped in
increasingly hostile circumstances. Leslie's meticulous attention
to Benjamin's political, intellectual, geographical and cultural
journeying challenges the populist depiction of the intellectual as
a tragic and lonely figure. Walter Benjamin restores its subject to
his proper place as an artistic combatant and a man desirous of and
relishing experience.
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