The readings in the present volume have proposed, not another set of re-interpretations of the same material, reviewed according to the latest critical modes, but, more radically, an engagement with the process of Valéry's unique thinking and writing practice viewed in the perspective of the ‘unitary spirit’ proper to it. The diverse but determined critical reassessment proceeding here has sought to shift the focus of attention – and, first of all, the textual corpus considered – so as to redefine the terms of the debate in conformity with the deeper logic of Valéry's singular enterprise of the mind.

Shifting the definition of ‘the work’ and displacing its centre of gravity leads one away from earlier, schematic divisions between unrelated continents of the mind: published texts and private notes, lyric expression and canonic art, abstract intelligence and the various modes of pre- or trans-rational apprehension of things, the shock of the new and the continuity with tradition, as also between theory and practice in numerous sectors of this uniquely awakened and wide-ranging mind. For Valéry too, ‘le temps du monde finicommence’ (‘the time of the finite world is beginning’); and we may henceforth circulate freely within it.

The finite world is a place of inter-relations. The lyrical writing of La Jeune Parque is, we observe, deeply informed both by the long-practised precision of inner analytical observation and by the resurgent forces of the deep psyche.