An intelligent heart

Nine texts in defense of the value of literature for life

An Intelligent Heart is a philosophical essay on novels and readers that reclaims literature as a social science . Alain Finkielkraut shows how authors such as Milan Kundera, Albert Camus, Philip Roth, Joseph Conrad, Fyodor Doistoevsky, Henry James, among others, dissect the importance and interpretation of laughter, the radical nature of revolt in contrast to bourgeois moderation, the value of solidarity, the bellicose nature of human beings, the bravery of forgiveness and friendship, the search for identity, the irreducible power of will, and the glorification of utopia.

In the book, Finkielkraut, a staunch social critic , argues that genuine respect for others is inseparable from the demands for justice and equality . The author examines the contradictory ideals of universalism and partisanship and analyzes the ravages of modernity. For him, art, democracy, identity, religious dogma, cultural failure, and totalitarianism emerge and interconnect with an almost lyrical literary analysis.

In An Intelligent Heart , the ability to combine purely functional intelligence with abstract sentimentality takes on literary contours under the controversial gaze of Alain Finkielkraut. Unmissable.