L'Art de l'oisiveté

Written between 1899 and 1962, the 37 texts in this volume, most of them previously unpublished in French, speak of music, painting, books, landscapes, and encounters with people. Hesse proposes a new relationship to existence, a kind of programme he calls “the art of idleness”: an art of looking that champions humour, scepticism, critical spirit, in short, the freedom of the individual.